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LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 













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LANDSCAPE 
GARDENING 
STUDIES v w 

BY SAMUEL PARSONS 



JOHN LANE COMPANY 

NEW YORK v V v MCMX 



Copyright, 1910, by 
JOHN LANE COMPANY 






PUBLISHERS PRINTING COMPANY, NEW YORK 



(c*s r.\ a -j n 



PREFACE 

The work illustrated and described in this 
unpretending book represents the author's own 
undertakings, with one single exception, the 
pond in Central Park. These concrete examples 
are selected to show by picture and pen how some 
problems of landscape gardening were solved by 
him. They represent certain leading types of 
work and in a simple way some of the basic prin- 
ciples of the art. 

It will be noticed that no reference has been 
made to the actual design of architectural struc- 
tures. The difficulty with the landscape architect 
has often been, that he will insist on designing 
buildings, something which is really outside of 
his domain. His province is to deal with Nature 
and render her more beautiful, more enticing, 
more lovely in every respect; but always herself, 
always Nature. It needs a lifetime of study to 
catch the spirit of her beauty and transfix and 
utilize it by intelligent manipulation for man's 
use and enjoyment. 

There are broad and simple principles of the 
art, which should be reflected in a more or less 
modified way in all good landscape-gardening 
work. Thus, in order to secure a good composition 
developed from the surroundings to meet man's 
physical needs and at the same time secure a 



PREFACE 

due satisfaction of his higher aesthetic and spiritual 
nature, the designer should keep large motives 
in view: breadth, simplicity, a skillful adjust- 
ment of the relations between the different parts 
of the place so that there will be a proper bal- 
ance throughout the scheme. The place should 
not be all garden or all pleasure grounds or merely 
well-groomed and planted farm fields. There 
are instincts and sentiments which naturally 
well up in the mind when the scheme of develop- 
ment is undertaken that should be allowed to 
lead the designer into pleasant harmonious rela- 
tions with the landscape, not forcing or contorting 
existing conditions, but allowing Nature to guide 
in all things with her supremely artistic hand. 

A wind-swept knoll with distant views should 
not be obstructed by many trees. On the other 
hand, when a nook at the back or one side of the 
house suggests a garden or a retired valley, trees 
and shrubs should further emphasize, perfect, 
and complete the sense of seclusion. 

This faculty of design in landscape gardening 
is, of course, the highest and most difficult attain- 
ment of the art. The promptings of its suggestion 
can be trusted, however, only by those who have 
sought with long and diligent study its manifold 
secrets. The habits and strange vagaries of 
individuality characterizing different trees, shrubs, 
and flowering plants must be well understood. 
The treatment of the special soils in which these 
plants are to grow needs attention that many fail 
to give. The change of the surface of the ground, 



PREFACE 

usually termed grading, also represents an impor- 
tant field for study and involves much artistic 
training and natural ability. Finally, roads and 
paths are required to enjoy the finished effect, 
provided they are so arranged as not to mar it. 

When sufficient skill and knowledge on these 
points have been attained there should be associ- 
ated with them for entire success a breadth of 
vision and a matured judgment which can be 
arrived at only by a sympathetic study of the 
works of masters in landscape architecture. The 
study of such great examples as Central Park, 
New York, and Prospect Park, Brooklyn, and 
in Europe such places as the great park laid out 
at Muskau, in Southern Prussia, by Prince Puckler; 
some of the parks in the neighborhood of Berlin; 
certain of the great English country places, notably 
Haddon Hall, will do much to give soundness 
of vision and the needed critical faculty. It may 
be said also that the study of all landscape-garden- 
ing designs affords a source of more or less valuable 
education. 

It is with this end in view that the following 
chapters undertake to present by means of text 
and illustrations the efforts of one student of the 
art. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Preface 3 



I. Lawns 9 

II. The Rehabilitation and Completion of Central 

Park, New York 13 

III. A Hillside Park (St. Nicholas) .... 18 

IV. A Seaside Park (Coney Island) .... 22 
V. Some Designs for New York City Play-Grounds 25 

VI. Play-Grounds Continued 27 

VII. Landscape Treatment of Lakes and Ponds . 29 

VIII. Park Treatment of Cemeteries .... 31 

IX. Homestead Parks 33 

X. A Park for the National Capital ... 37 

XI. A Mountain Road on the Hudson ... 43 

XII. An Autumnal Hillside 46 

XIII. The Colonial Garden (Van Cortlandt) . . 49 

XIV. Two Country-Places 53 

XV. A Japanese Tea-Garden 61 

XVI. The Sage Sag Harbor Home .... 65 

XVII. Pierson High School, Sag Harbor ... 69 

XVIII. An Island Home 74 

XIX. Evergreens 82 

XX. Rhododendrons 86 

XXI. Mrs Russell Sage's Mile of Rhododendrons 

in Central Park 93 

Index 99 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Entrance to Central Park, Fifty-ninth Street and 

Seventh Avenue Frontispiece * 

PAGE 

Lawn in Central Park, New York 10 

Denudation of Roots of Trees in Central Park 14 

Play-ground Lawn in Central Park — Bad Condition 16 

Play-ground Lawn in Prospect Park — Good Condition 16 

St. Nicholas Park 20 

Coney Island Park 22 

A Play-ground — Thomas Jefferson Park 25 

A Play-ground— W. H. Seward Park 26 

A Play-ground— De Witt Clinton Park 27 

View of Fifty-ninth Street Pond in Central Park 28 

Another View of Fifty-ninth Street Pond in Central Park 29 

View of Lake in Central Park 30 

Plan of Pine Lawn Cemetery 32 

View of Mountain Terrace 33 

Plan of Glenwood (A Homestead Park) 34 

Plan of Park Treatment of Territory situated between the Capitol 
Grounds and the Washington Monument, Washington, D. C. 37 

Study of Bridge over Sunken Transverse Road in Park Treat- 
ment of Washington Park 39 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

A Mountain Road 44 

Plan of Colonial Garden in Van Cortlandt Park 50 

Perspective View of Colonial Garden in Van Cortlandt Park. 52 

Plan of Miss Bosler's Grounds, Carlisle, Pa 54 

Plan of F. Nelson, Jr.'s, Grounds, Birmingham, Ala 58 

Japanese Garden Plantations 62 

Mrs. Russell Sage's Home at Sag Harbor, L. 1 66 

Original Contours of Pierson High School Grounds 69 

Proposed Contours for Grading of Pierson High School Grounds 71 

Planting-Plan of Pierson High School Grounds 73 

Plan of a Small Garden on Sheffield Island, Conn 78 

A Study in Grouping Evergreens at Houghton Farm, Orange 
County, N. Y 82 

View of Rhododendron Plantation given by Mrs. Russell Sage to 
Central Park 94 

Another View of Mrs. Sage's Rhododendron Plantation 96 



LANDSCAPE 
GARDENING STUDIES 

i 

LAWNS 

TO grade a lawn properly, requires the eye of 
an artist and the skilled hand of a true 
artisan. One has to feel and study not only 
the contour of the land itself but also the surround- 
ing conditions. A level lawn in the midst of a roll- 
ing territory will be forced and ill fitted. The 
contour of a lawn should form an integral part of 
the general character of any special region. 

A level surface, even if it could be obtained, 
would seldom have value, for no territory is abso- 
lutely level. Therefore, whether long flowing lines 
or shorter ones be employed, they should be so 
graduated as to blend and lose themselves one in 
the other. 

If drainage is necessary, the lawn should be 
underdrained with tile laid about two feet below 
the surface. Clay loams and heavy clay soils are 
nearly always improved by such treatment. In 
England so fully is the value of drainage appre- 
ciated that landlords will lend money to tenants 
for this purpose, believing that the returns will 
secure the payment of the debt. 

The ideal way of fertilizing a lawn is to secure a 
chemical analysis of a number of samples taken 

[9] 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

from different parts of the lawn to determine its 
alkalinity, its clay and humus content, and possibly 
the lack of some mineral plant-food element. If 
the clay content is low a coating of two or three 
inches of clay loam spread over the ground and 
incorporated with the natural soil will add greatly 
to the power of the soil to retain moisture and fer- 
tility, together with the mineral salts it may itself 
contain. But if the lawn is deficient in organic 
matter there will be no hope of satisfactory results 
unless this condition is corrected by increasing the 
humus content. Under favorable circumstances 
the best method of securing this humus is to bring 
it from some thoroughly drained swamp which 
has been long cultivated. Such humus soil must 
be well rotted, thoroughly disintegrated, sweet, 
and well supplied with nitrogen and nitrifying soil 
germs so essential to active fertility. One or two 
inches of this material should be harrowed in the 
same as manure. It might be interesting to know 
the chemical formulae of a highly fertile soil. 

ANALYSIS 

ON DRY BASIS 
MECHANICAL — 

Sand 54.5 per cent 

Clay 25. " " 

Lime 2.5 " " 

Humus 18. " " 

100. 
texture — 60 per cent passes 50-mesh sieve to the inch. 

[101 



LAWNS 

CHEMICAL — 

Organic humus material 18. 

(Containing ammonia .90). 

Ash 82. 

Containing Lime 2.50 

Phosphoric acid ... .35 

Potash 40 

Silica and residue . . 78.75 



82.00 100 

ALKALINE 

This is an ideal soil, well balanced and of long enduring fertility. 

If the soil is acid, which condition can be dis- 
covered by the use of litmus paper to be obtained 
from any druggist, lime should be used at the rate 
of one thousand pounds to the acre. Water 
slacked (hydrated oxide) is the best form in which 
to use it, broadcasted and harrowed or raked in. 

Stable manure can also be used with excellent 
results to furnish the humus or organic matter 
for the lawn; but it must be remembered that it 
should be thoroughly rotted by proper composting 
in a pit or other situation, where leaching is pre- 
vented and the drainage liquor can be returned to 
the heap. In this way a large part of the noxious 
weed seeds are destroyed and a prolific cause of 
bad lawns eliminated. An acre of lawn should 
have at least a hundred loads of well-rotted ma- 
nure, preferably cow manure, spread on its surface 
and spaded or plowed under. 

Before seeding, the soil must be made thoroughly 
fine by plowing or spading and repeated harrowing 

[111 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

and raking. If the soil is sandy it might be well 
to roll it before a final, very light raking, so that 
when the seed is put in it will not be planted too 
deep. Whether the seed be sown with a machine, 
in order to spread it evenly, or by hand, it should 
be sown in both directions. After seeding, the 
lawn should be rolled and kept watered if the soil 
requires it. 

The foundation of every lawn should be blue- 
grass, either Kentucky or Canadian. It is long- 
lived and very hardy, making a thick compact sod 
that endures drought well. A lawn made of this 
grass will not come to perfection until the third year. 
Other grasses, quick-growing and suited to fill in 
while the blue-grass is coming to maturity, may 
be mixed in. Such are Pace's rye grass and Rhode 
Island bent; the latter, by the w T ay, does specially 
well in sandy soil. In shady places the best grass 
is wood meadow (Poa sylvestris). Very soon after 
the grass comes up, almost as soon as the mowing- 
machine will nip it, cutting should be started. 
Only in this way can the lawn be made to grow 
compactly and luxuriantly. The knives of the 
mowing-machine should not be set too low in 
doing this cutting, especially in hot periods and 
dry weather. 



[12] 



II 

THE REHABILITATION AND 

COMPLETION OF 
CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK 

Fifty-three years ago the construction of 
Central Park was well under way. General Viele 
had prepared a plan and Mr. Frederick Law 
Olmsted was Superintendent of Parks. Something 
had been done but not a great deal, so that when 
dissatisfaction with the way things were going de- 
veloped, it was not difficult to call a halt and ad- 
vertise for the best plan and to offer an adequate 
reward. 

The Greensward plan of Calvert Vaux and 
Frederick Law Olmsted took the prize, and 
thereafter both of these artists retained during 
their lives a more or less dominating influence for 
good over the carrying out of the design of Central 
Park. It is largely due to these conditions that 
we have Central Park as it is to-day ; though per- 
haps the result is still more due to the fact that 
there were intelligent citizens in New York, Mr. 
Andrew H. Green among the number, who were 
willing to fight long and hard for the retention of 
the original design. 

It might be well to note that the design of Central 
Park means the working out of several ideas, which 

[13] 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

were felt to be necessary to the proper park concep- 
tion of the situation and the peculiar character of 
New York City. The park consisted of a territory 
belonging to the city, bounded by 59th Street, 
110th Street, Fifth and Eighth Aves. Within this 
boundary were the unformed elements of a picture, 
with suggestions of open-air joy for every citizen 
from childhood to old age. Here was an open 
meadow where the breezes could play on the rolling 
surface of the cool greensward, and there a valley, 
and woodland and lake, with quiet country ef- 
fects, offering rest and charm for all classes, a 
place where on a clear, sparkling day every human 
being could take in with delight the open air 
undefiled. 

The problem which the first designers kept 
before them was to take advantage of the natural 
features which existed in this territory and so bind 
them together with planting, grading, roads, and 
paths as to make not only a picture of the highest 
artistic value, but to afford pleasure, rest, and 
comfort to all who come within its confines, to 
give freedom and enjoyment to all without inter- 
ference with the rights of any. Round all this 
charm of natural scenery it was intended to 
place a frame of foliage that should not only form 
a fitting border for the picture, but also conceal 
as far as possible the sights and sounds of the city. 

Yet Central Park is not completed. Before 
he died Mr. Vaux had planned almost every de- 
tail for the final accomplishment of the work. 
To-day, however, there are large sections of the 

[14] 





DENUDATION OF ROOTS OF TREES IN CENTRAL PARK 



COMPLETION OF CENTRAL PARK 

park which still remain unfinished after some 
fifty-seven years of effort on the part of citizens, 
superintendents, landscape architects, and com- 
missioners: notably the territories from 79th 
Street to 86th Street, east side; from 96th Street 
to 100th Street, east side; all along the west side 
from 110th Street to 100th Street and from 81st 
Street to 77th Street. Indeed it may be said that 
the border plantations and grading need in a 
great many places throughout the park, not only 
restoration, but actual completion in order to carry 
out properly the ideas of the designers. 

Central Park well deserves all the reputation 
it has. But these lovely bits of landscape, both 
open meadows and sylvan dells, have not been 
brought together with the artistic skill which the 
original designer intended. So beautiful, how- 
ever, has the park appeared in the eyes of the 
general public and the disbursers of the public 
funds that from the early days of the park down to 
about 1890 or 1895 little thought was given to the 
completion of the entire design of the park. It 
is doubtful whether even to-day any considerable 
number of those who visit the park realize how far 
it still is from completion. 

So long was this lack of completion delayed 
that finally, after scores of years had passed, a new 
condition appeared, increasing twofold the park's 
imperfection. This was that the trees and shrubs 
finally reached the limit of their span of life, a 
necessarily short one in the poor soil and unnatural 
conditions of a large city. The lovers of the park, 

[15] 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

were confronted, therefore, with a sad condition 
of things. The great design had never been com- 
pleted and such beauty as had been secured in 
large degree had lapsed into decay. 

At the time a commission of experts was em- 
ployed to confer with the park authorities with a 
view to devising a remedy for this incomplete and 
decaying condition of the park, while the press 
insisted loyally and persistently that New York 
should safeguard its greatest art treasure from 
failure and decay at any cost. 

Year after year efforts were made to secure ap- 
propriations for the prosecution of the work of 
restoring and renewing the soil and plantations of 
Central Park, but all without avail. The authori- 
ties acknowledged the necessity for the work, but 
considered themselves unable to vote the money 
in view of the greater necessities of other depart- 
ments of the city. Finally in 1907, after a specially 
convincing and complete report had been made by 
the park commissioner of that time, pointing out 
where in the park the work should be done and 
estimating the cost of such work, Mrs. Russell 
Sage came forward and generously offered to make 
liberal donations toward the restoration be- 
cause her husband had always been fond of the 
park. Her noble gift of more than half a mile 
of rhododendrons resulted. Thus the great work 
of the restoration, and also it is hoped of the 
completion, has been fairly commenced. Surely 
from one source or another there is reason to hope 
that funds will be forthcoming to rehabilitate this 

[16] 



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COMPLETION OF CENTRAL PARK 

most charming bit of water and sylvan landscape. 
In order to realize better the needs of Central Park 
and how much should be spent on it, it is worth 
while to turn to the chapter of this book which 
gives an account of Mrs. Sage's gift of rhododen- 
drons. It might be interesting to go farther and 
state that the cost of the soil, clay loam, and 
humus used in making this plantation was $20,000, 
while the total cost of the gift only came to about 
$50,000. There are twenty tracts of the park where 
similar treatment should be given. Besides the 
need for restoration and completion already re- 
ferred to, employment of new and rare species 
of trees and shrubs needs far greater attention. 
Certainly Central Park, in view of its reputation 
as the foremost pleasure ground of America, 
should present to the world an exhibition of 
landscape gardening art in its latest and most 
perfect expression. 



17 



Ill 

A HILLSIDE PARK 

St. Nicholas Park is built on a portion of a 
precipitous rugged mass of rock extending from 
below 110th Street up to 155th Street, New York 
City. From thence the same ridge extends along 
the speedway to Dyckman Street and is of nearly 
the same character. 

It forms a distinct barrier between two portions 
of the city, both of which are now becoming popu- 
lous. It is so precipitous that it is a hard climb 
to reach the upper level from the sidewalk. Steep 
roadways have been devised at a few points. By 
far the greater number of streets, however, abutting 
the park can not be carried across it at reasonable 
grades for traffic, this rocky tract forming an 
almost insuperable obstacle. 

In order to use this ground profitably and devise 
ways of crossing for pedestrians, a series of parks 
have been bought and established by the city, 
including Morningside Park, St. Nicholas Park, 
and Colonial Park, all veritable steep hillside 
reservations, and the Speedway which is bordered 
by park lands of similar character, in all a distance 
of some five miles. The most noteworthy of these 
parks is St. Nicholas. 

Along the upper level, a hundred feet above 
[18] 



A HILLSIDE PARK 

St. Nicholas Avenue, is St. Nicholas Terrace, bor- 
dering the park for its whole length on the west 
from 130th to 141st Street. This terrace is sup- 
ported by a rough cut-stone retaining wall from 
ten to thirty feet high. On this wall is built a 
cut-stone parapet of gray granite, and at intervals 
on its front are constructed flights of steps to the 
park below, with landings and balustrades. The 
space beneath these flights of steps is utilized for 
comfort stations, tool-rooms, etc. 

On the extreme north corner of this park wall, 
on the other side of St. Nicholas Terrace, is situated 
the great quadrangular graystone Gothic mass 
crowned with numerous castellated turrets and 
towers, the five-million-dollar City College of 
Greater New York. This Gothic mass suggests 
and almost forces a Gothic treatment of the parapet 
wall, steps, and comfort stations. Opposite the 
main entrance of the college building comes 
naturally the most important entrance to the park, 
down winding flights of steps to the street below. 

The park itself is narrow, and therefore only 
two paths are carried through its entire length. 
One on the higher level connects the various flights 
of steps; the other on a lower level connects the 
various entrances from St. Nicholas Avenue. 
Between these two longitudinal streets, transverse 
ones wind about, seeking the easiest grades up 
the steep slopes till they find their exit at the steps 
leading out of the park. 

In order to secure reasonably comfortable grades 
for foot passengers, a large amount of cutting and 

r 10 1 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

filling has been done, so that sometimes a path 
will lead through a rocky defile and again creep 
along the base of a cliff with grassy slopes falling 
away below. The curves and junctions of these 
paths are made with long flowing lines and easy 
turns at the corners. The lawn spaces are enlarged 
as much as possible because of their necessarily 
restricted area, extra rock having been blasted in 
many places to bring this about. 

The general sweep and configuration of this side 
hill is kept as close as possible to the original 
surface as designed by Nature. In order to retain 
this appearance, the borders of the walks, especially 
where the land slopes off sharply, are mounded up 
so as to form a screen and prevent the eye detecting 
the walks from below, except in a few places, as 
where one approaches an entrance and necessarily 
sees much of the length of the walk. Along the 
steps, of which there are a great many, at points 
where the grades are too steep, the earth is 
mounded up in still larger quantities and rocks 
are used to diversify its effect. The borders of 
all these steps are planted heavily with trees and 
shrubs so as to mask them. 

Trees and shrubs are also planted at the various 
junctions of the paths and about the entrances to 
St. Nicholas Avenue and around the flights of steps. 
Along rocky defiles are planted whole borders and 
masses of native gray willows and similar trees. 
On another hillside are set red cedars the conical 
forms of which tend to increase the appearance 
of ruggedness. This is done on the principle in 

[20] 



A HILLSIDE PARK 

landscape gardening that the dominant note must 
be followed with a harmonious treatment, a high 
hill made higher, a rugged slope more rugged, a 
deep valley made deeper, thus invariably following 
Nature's lead. 

All walks are shaded at intervals of forty to 
fifty feet with large trees ; and against the support- 
ing park wall above are planted masses of ever- 
greens and deciduous trees and shrubs of a more 
or less woodland type. The largest types of trees 
are planted where the wall is highest, thus pre- 
venting their ultimate growth from shutting off 
the view from St. Nicholas Terrace of the park 
and surrounding country. 



[21] 



IV 
A SEASIDE PARK 

At the foot of Ocean Parkway, fronting on 
Sea Breeze Avenue which bounds the bathing- 
beach at Coney Island, is a park completely ex- 
posed to the ocean. The whole side of the park 
bordering Sea Breeze Avenue is affected by the 
spray for a distance of a hundred feet into the 
park. On the west side are situated all the 
celebrated buildings for amusement, including 
Luna Park and Dreamland. For many years 
this park was a waste where only a few stunted 
trees and shrubs managed to live. 

About seven years ago this waste land was 
covered from one to one and one-half feet deep 
with good top soil well supplied with clay brought 
from neighboring farm lands. The original flat 
surface of the ground was made more attractive by 
long flowing undulations by means of carefully 
managed grading. In low places, and especially 
where shrubs and trees were expected to stand, 
the layer of soil was deepened in some cases a foot 
or more. The original soil being nearly pure 
sand and the exposure most unfavorable to vigor- 
ous plant growth, this liberal supply of strong top 
soil was necessary. 

The theory of the design of this park was to 
[22] 



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A SEASIDE PARK 

carry walks around the outer portions of thjs terri- 
tory, leaving a long oval with a broad stretch of 
greensward, a specially important feature in this 
arid region skirting the sea. At the junctions of 
the various paths and at the entrance gates abun- 
dant plantations of trees and shrubs were set out. 
The entire park is enclosed by a high iron fence to 
protect it from the multitudes that throng Coney 
Island many months of the year. The walks are 
made of rubble stone and trap-rock screenings. 

The most interesting feature of this place is the 
planting. The trees and shrubs have been very 
successful all over the tract, except where the 
spray actually falls on them. The privets, plane- 
trees, and English elms (Wheatleys) stand the 
exposure specially well. Masses of hybrid and 
maximum rhododendrons and a few kalmias are 
planted at different points in the park and thrive 
remarkably under the unnatural conditions to 
which they are subjected. Nearly as hardy as 
the English elm and Oriental plane-tree are the 
American elm and Norway maple. Specimens of 
yellow birch also thrive, catalpa, pussy willow, 
weeping willow, and gray willow. Among the 
various evergreens that have been tried on this 
place the only ones which have done well are the 
Austrian pines of which twenty remain out of an 
original planting of twenty-six. 

The deciduous shrubs that have succeeded on 
this place are somewhat numerous. Those that 
do the best are probably Baccharis halimifolia, 
or the groundsel; Myrica cerifera, the common 

[23] 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

bayberry of the coast; California privet and its 
relative L. ibota; hydrangeas and hibiscus suc- 
ceed; the crimson rambler roses and viburnums; 
bush honeysuckles; Philadelphus and barberry, 
and even the white dogwood. Hybrid tea roses 
flourish in this sea air and even, in a secluded 
corner, the ordinarily tender Aucuba japonica, 
the bushy dogwoods, Alba sanguinia, and the 
others, forsythia and the Japanese raspberry 
(Rhodotypus kerrioides). These shrubs, helped 
by the rich clay-loam top soil, all are vigorous 
on the portions of the park where the spray does 
not reach them. 

Another interesting feature of this park is the 
brilliant show of bedding-plants displayed through- 
out the season. Cannas, geraniums, and other 
plants of similar character are set in large beds. 
These bedding-plants seem better here by the sea 
than elsewhere. 

Hydrants are placed at distances of two hundred 
feet throughout the park, and the needed moisture is 
liberally supplied grass, trees, and shrubs through- 
out the summer. 



24 




Play Ground 



Play Ground 




-Thomas - Jefferson - Park- 
A PLAY-GROUND— THOMAS JEFFERSON PARK 



SOME DESIGNS FOR NEW YORK CITY 
PLAY-GROUNDS 

At 111th Street on the banks of the East River 
is what may be termed a large city park devoted 
chiefly to children's play-grounds. 

A reason for its existence just here is found in 
the thousands of Italians living in tenements all 
around the park and only a little further away 
even a greater population of Jews. The park 
consists of ten or twelve acres lying almost level 
between 110th and 114th Streets, with a gentle 
slope to the banks of the river across one arm of 
which, a short distance away, extends Randall's 
Island with its hospitals and House of Refuge. 

From the extreme west of the park the effect 
obtained is that the river is lost to sight and 
Randall's Island appears to be a continuation of 
the park with no water intervening. On the 
edge of the gentle slope, about three hundred 
feet from the water, is a large handsome shelter 
building, the level of the floor of which is reached 
by steps. A band occupies this space during 
certain days throughout the summer, and the shade 
is always grateful to mother^, babies, and children 
at play. Underneath in the basement are shower 
baths for the use of the public. 

[25] 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

On the other side of the house to the west extend 
winding walks enclosing somewhat formal areas 
of ground which are set apart for games of various 
sorts, gymnastics, ball, little children's sand piles, 
swings, older girls' basket-ball — in short, every 
sort of game that can be devised for girls and boys 
of various ages. 

At the extreme west and bordering the main 
avenue is a considerable lawn. Around each of 
these plots for games shade trees are planted, and 
around the entire outer boundaries of the park 
is a high iron picket fence, with shade trees and 
shrubs arranged along its borders. 

In front of the building toward Randall's Island 
is the only truly park-like feature on the place. 
Indeed, the only way to make parks to be used as 
play-grounds is to isolate certain territories on the 
outskirts of the park or across one entire tract 
and treat this in a thoroughly park-like manner. 
The play-ground portion can not be made to look 
like a park; but shade trees can be made to 
grow, provided they are well protected with tree 
guards. The boy, however, in his semi-civilized 
state will be sure to make war on trees and shrubs 
when at play; the fear of neither policemen nor 
parents will stay his hands. Sometime and some- 
where his exuberant spirits will cause the foliage to 
suffer. 



[26] 



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A PLAY-GROUND— W. H. SEWARD PARK 



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35* 



A PLAY-GROUND— DE WITT CLINTON PARK 



VI 
PLAY-GROUNDS CONTINUED 

William H. Seward Park is situated along East 
Broadway, with Jefferson Street, Division Street, 
Suffolk Street, Hester Street, Essex Street, and 
Canal Street bounding it. This spot was a few 
years ago one of the most congested in New York 
City. The tenement houses which were cleared 
from this location to make way for the park were 
dilapidated and noisome in the extreme. The 
area is less than three acres, but around it is carried 
a real park effect of trees, shrubs, and lawns, 
with a central mall extending from Canal to 
Hester Street. On one side of this mall is a 
children's play-ground with every game and amuse- 
ment for girls of all sizes. A high fence surrounds 
it in order to afford every means of protection to 
the little ones in this crowded part of the city. 

High fences also surround the exterior boundary 
of the park, and around all grass plots are lower 
fences with pointed crestings to increase some- 
what their effectiveness. A double row of trees 
is planted along the mall. 

On the west side of the mall are a large gymnasi- 
um ground and running track, and back of that, 
adjoining the extreme west boundary, is a hand- 
some building affording music and shelter for the 
mothers and little ones. Underneath it are many 
baths for public use. The walks are asphalted 

[271 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

and everything is done to protect the park from 
the persistent stress and wanton destruction of 
the surrounding mixed population. 

Dewitt Clinton Park is a children's play-ground 
situated on the banks of the Hudson River, 
bounded on the west by Twelfth Ave., on the south 
by 57th Street, on the east by Eleventh Ave., and 
on the north by 54th Street, between nine and 
ten acres in extent. 

This park is specially well arranged for the 
introduction of play-grounds. The borders on 
three sides are more or less steep and through the 
center extends a level plateau which has been 
made more level by grading. Walks wind up 
from all the four corners and at two intermediate 
points on one side and one on the other. The 
steepness of the ground makes it possible to pro- 
duce a picturesque, park-like effect of trees and 
shrubs over a large extent of the territory. 

Natural rocks appear in several places through- 
out its surface. A broad path leads from the 
center of the park on Eleventh Ave. to a gymnasium 
ground surrounded by trees; and in front of this, 
on an undulating lawn of its own, is a fine music 
stand. Beyond this a farm garden for children 
has been established and five hundred or more 
little ones from this neighborhood farm their little 
plots throughout the season. Beyond this, in turn, 
on a high, steep bank overlooking the Hudson, 
extends a long pergola or arbor beneath which are 
rooms used as night schools by the farm children, 
where they are taught domestic economy. 

[28] 



& 






,1 









VII 

LANDSCAPE TREATMENT OF LAKES 
AND PONDS 

The pond in Central Park is close to the 59th- 
Street entrance near Fifth Avenue; it lies thirty 
feet below the surface of the street and is long, 
winding, and narrow. Much of the effect of this 
sheet of water was increased by piling on the pre- 
cipitous shores on the northwest side quantities 
of the earth excavated from the lake, which was 
probably originally only a stream. On the south- 
east side the ground was graded more gradually 
in order to carry a walk along the borders of the 
water and further to give more suitable planting- 
space for the large trees between it and the street. 
On the high rugged promontory to the northwest 
were planted large trees to increase further the 
effect of height. This ruggedness and picturesque- 
ness are made more noticeable by the way the lake 
is led to wind and lose itself behind the promon- 
tory, terminating at a grassy slope or dell which 
completes the picture. 

To the northeast, at a narrow part of the lake, 
a bridge spans the water. It is built of large 
bowlders of native stone, with the joints so made 
as to hide the cement. The weather-beaten sur- 
faces are exposed and there is very little sign of 
the tool on the bridge except where a bluestone 
coping finishes the top surface of the balustrade 

[29] 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

and where the arch stones perfect and hold to- 
gether the structure. 

The entrances to this massive stone bridge are 
heavily screened with quantities of trees, shrubs, 
and vines, particularly the ivy-like creeper 
Ampelopsis veitchi clinging by its rootlets to the 
rough surface of the bridge and covering a con- 
siderable part of it. Here and there within a short 
distance of this bridge, and at intervals all along 
the shores, bowlders are seen just above the water, 
and back of these, extending over the water, grow 
white birches and other woodland trees. Wild 
shrubs, sumacs, and dogwoods appear among 
these trees and extend up the hillside in great 
masses. A walk leads over the bridge and along- 
side a little dell at the end of the lake to the Sixth 
Avenue entrance at 59th Street. Along the pre- 
cipitous sides of the promontory on the northwest 
side of the lake no walk is made. 

The walks on the other side of the lake are 
planted with trees of a less woodland character — 
European beeches, Norway maples, and others. 
The view to the north from the bridge completes 
the charm of the picture. The eye is led through 
a series of pools and connecting rivulets away 
from the lake past low undulating grassy banks 
and obstructing bowlders into an ever widening 
lawn, where it loses itself at the base of a gentle 
slope merging into the woodland beyond. 

The planting of this lake and the curves of the 
shores are all designed to give limited views, 
except at one or two unexpected points. 

[30] 




■*....;.-:■ " :u ■■; 



VIII 
PARK TREATMENT OF CEMETERIES 

It is unnecessary in this present day and country 
to advocate the use of the parking system in ceme- 
teries. Its value and beauty are generally con- 
ceded. The difficulty experienced, however, is so 
to balance the portions used for lots and those set 
aside for parking effects, that the picturesque, 
natural scenery appears dominant, and the land 
sold for burial purposes is retained in sufficient 
quantities to insure a financial success of the enter- 
prise, which, after all, is the controlling considera- 
tion. It would be well in the beginning to make 
a general and emphatic protest against all designs 
involving a gridiron arrangement of lots. This 
should not, of course, be understood to imply that 
one or more angular lots might not occur here and 
there in the general scheme. All this would 
depend largely on the character and configuration 
of the land. For the same reason it is difficult 
to make hard and fast rules as to the arrangement 
of any cemetery grounds. Three things, however, 
should be barred in park cemeteries: they are 
fences, hedges, and tall monuments. 

The simplest way to illustrate the proper develop- 
ment of cemetery ground is to consider an actual 
example on Long Island. The problem that 
presented itself was a treatment of two thousand 
acres of nearly level territory supporting a few 

[31] 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

scattering pines within its area. In order to avoid 
the monotonous treatment which the place dis- 
tinctly invited on account of its level surface, the 
scheme of a series of concentric circles was devised 
because it was recognized that the best effects of 
park design are produced by massing large features 
of the landscape together and securing prolonged 
vistas and continually curving lines in every 
direction. 

The whole area was bisected by two long avenues 
running nearly at right angles. At the inter- 
section of these roads was established a large 
park of seventy-five acres which was devoted 
entirely to lawns and trees, burial places being 
excluded. Extending in four directions from this 
center a series of concentric circles were laid out, 
with one of the avenues before mentioned in every 
case passing through the center; and connecting 
the different circles were various areas of irregular 
form with roads devised to fit their outlines. 

The interior of these concentric circles was 
arranged for burial lots by more concentric circles 
with connecting roads and paths just as in the 
larger scheme. The curve of the arc of these 
circles forming a side or an end of an individual lot 
was so slight that its deviation from a straight line 
was barely noticeable, yet viewed as a whole the 
gridiron effect was entirely eliminated. Points or 
areas were established at the center and other 
portions of the curves where trees and shrubs 
could be planted in such masses as would secure 
a natural park-like effect. 

[32] 




'. 



PLAN OF PINE LAWN CEMETERY 



PLAN FOR PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT 
"GLENWOOD." 

BIRMINGHAM. ALA. 




SCALE : I'- 50: 
VIEW OF MOUNTAIN TERRACE 



IX 
HOMESTEAD PARKS 

If we find the gridiron design or checkerboard 
pattern frequently applied to cemeteries, even 
more do we find it applied to real-estate develop- 
ments for the purpose of the sale of lots. 

The profit to be derived governs in both cases. 
Greater foresight should be used to insure beauty 
as well as convenience and comfort. If one 
would but think a moment it will be evident that 
such a combination commands a higher price 
than convenience and comfort alone. It is pos- 
sible, of course, on a perfectly level plain to devise a 
square system of lots that will give a picturesque 
effect by the use of trees and shrubs in a park-like 
way, each plot indeed being a miniature park. But 
such conditions rarely prevail and even then, as 
we have seen in the case of Pine Lawn Cemetery, 
there are more attractive ways of accomplishing 
the same result. Each hill and valley, whether 
large or small, in a park of this character has a 
definite individuality of its own — an outlook, a 
vista, a charm of contour that may be retained by 
proper subdivision of land. 

In order to illustrate the application of the 
above principles it will be helpful to refer to 
Albemarle Park, built a number of years ago, and 

[33] 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

Mountain Terrace, a similar reservation recently 
treated in the same manner. 

Albemarle Park is a tract of land of about sixty 
acres situated in Asheville, North Carolina. The 
scheme is the usual one of a hotel with cottages 
around it. The unusual feature of the place is its 
steepness. The natural contours in many places 
will hardly allow one to reach its upper portions 
without the most strenuous effort. Consequently 
it is not surprising that the roads ascend on this 
place with almost spiral curves as may be seen 
on the accompanying plan. The entrance to the 
place is happily worked out by the architect in a 
simple building with a reasonable amount of dis- 
tinction, with a fine archway giving a glimpse up 
a winding road. This building is largely massed 
with trees and shrubs. 

The lots on this territory are naturally hilly 
and sometimes the front door has to be reached 
by steps. But the very ruggedness of the ground 
suggests more picturesque buildings and the wind- 
ing of the roads gives opportunities for masses of 
foliage to increase the beauty of the place. 

The views from points all over the park, as one 
comes from behind a mass of trees or foliage, 
ranges over the most entrancing scene of mountain 
and valley, and at the highest boundary of the 
place one emerges on a road called Sunset Drive 
which commands the most distant and striking 
prospect. 

The lots, which range from one-half acre to 
three acres in extent, were in each case carefully 

[34] 



HOMESTEAD PARKS 

studied with the architect in the original plan. 
The spot for the house was designated. The 
scheme for planting was worked out and in many 
cases carried out. Individual taste was allowed 
to dictate preferences as to the use of certain trees 
and shrubs within certain areas of the lot. Noth- 
ing was permitted, however, that would tend to 
destroy the natural woodland effect. Indeed, very 
many native trees were left standing. Many lots 
had a bit of lawn, a house, a few natural shrubs 
like dogwoods, and a background of native trees. 

It should be understood that, although every 
appearance of naturalness is preserved in the con- 
tour, even to the steep declivities of the hills, much 
change of surface has to be made to keep steep 
hillsides from washing and to soften by filling the 
rough and deeply scored hollows and uneven 
depressions. 

To illustrate further this method of treatment 
of a building-lot system, reference may be made 
to the Glen Wood tract at Birmingham. Here 
we have a territory, generally of a less steep char- 
acter, with lower hills around it. The bird's-eye 
view of the park, as seen in the picture, indicates 
the way in which roads on such territories have 
to find their way along the contours, creeping up 
the hillsides on the easiest possible grades. 

It will be noticed that in this tract of fifty or 
sixty acres few main roads are used. The lots 
are so irregular and difficult of approach on most 
sides that it is necessary to carry small winding 
drives to many of the lots so as to make them 

[35] 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

properly available. Walks are made in the hill- 
sides, five or six feet or more above the drives, 
and narrow alleys are sometimes employed to 
reach a stable at the rear of a lot. It is interesting, 
however, to observe how completely every inch 
of ground is managed so as to make it salable in 
the form of a lot. Heavy cuts and fills occur 
throughout the roads on this tract, some of the 
grades being at least ten per cent. The lots 
themselves have not been changed in contour to 
any considerable degree, thereby allowing the 
native trees to stand in large numbers wherever 
they do not interfere with the construction of the 
house and lawn in front. Along the borders of 
the roads is a liberal space of greensward. Shade 
trees are planted three or four feet from the curb. 
Around the entrance gate of fine stone work 
appear great masses of foliage, rare and choice, 
including many evergreen trees and shrubs which 
thrive specially well in this climate. Another 
great advantage which this Glen Wood tract 
possesses is that its roads are curbed and guttered, 
macadamized and in some cases asphalted, sew- 
ered, and lighted with electricity. 



[36] 



D3M 




<r-j, 



X 

A PARK FOR THE NATIONAL CAPITAL 

In 1900 Congress passed an act providing for 
the preparation of plans for the creation of an 
extensive park, covering about three hundred and 
fifty acres in the center of the city of Washington, 
extending from the Capitol to the Washington 
Monument and beyond to the Potomac. The 
preparation of these plans was entrusted to 
Samuel Parsons who submitted his report to 
Colonel Theodore A. Bingham, Corps of Engi- 
neers, in November, 1900.* 

The following extract from the report will give 
an idea of the scope of the undertaking and the 
general style of treatment proposed. 

In seeking to solve the problem of designing a 
park in the heart of Washington, a park which 
will be worthy not only of a great city, but of a 
great national capital, it is highly important at 
the very outset to discover and define the natural 
limitations that grow out of the original structural 
lines of the landscape and out of the demands both 
of the residential and of the business interests 
of the city. 

I think that these propositions will not be denied 
by persons who have really considered the subject : 

* Fifty-sixth Congress, Second Session, Document No. 135. 

[37] 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

(1) A park, as a pleasure ground, should be set 
apart and isolated as completely as art can con- 
trive it from sound and sight of the surrounding 
city; and (2) On the same line of endeavor the 
interior of the pleasure ground should be made 
to suggest woodland and meadow scenery so 
laid out as to afford convenient and agreeable 
access, by means of carriage and bridle roads 
and footpaths, to all points of interest and land- 
scape charm. 

Such a treatment would also assume that while 
every condition necessary for the comfort and 
enjoyment of the public should be kept clearly 
in view, the landscape should be made to take 
coherent and artistic shape from the original 
peculiar genius or idiosyncrasy of the place. 

Under these terms public buildings could not be 
generally included as part and parcel of the essen- 
tial scheme of the park, but they would properly 
find special territories of their own on the borders 
of the main pleasure ground, where they could 
be screened with thickly planted trees, and given 
a landscape treatment suitable to their character. 

In order to explain what I consider an ideal 
plan, I beg leave to call attention to the peculiarly 
fortunate outline and configuration of the pro- 
posed park. At present it is intended to cover 
approximately three hundred and fifty acres, 
which lie in a space bounded by Pennsylvania 
Avenue and B Street, S. W., with the Capitol 
looming up at the east, and Washington Monu- 
ment at the west. An oblong territory occupied 

[38] 




z C 

< r. 



A PARK FOR THE NATIONAL CAPITAL 

mainly by the Botanical Garden, the Mall, the 
Smithsonian Institution, the Agricultural grounds, 
and the territory around Washington Monument, 
already belongs to the nation, and it is proposed 
to condemn by law and secure a triangle of land 
running from Pennsylvania Avenue on the north, 
B Street North, on the south, and 15th Street on 
the west. I would suggest that in addition to 
this land, in order to secure the ideal park, another 
parcerbe acquired, bounded by Maryland Avenue 
on the south, B Street on the north, and 15th 
Street on the west; a range which would be won- 
derfully effective as seen from the base of the 
Capitol. There the view would widen over a great 
perspective that would include in its very heart the 
celebrated vista over almost level ground through 
grand old trees to the Washington Monument, 
which would be the very kernel and innermost 
jewel or shrine of the landscape. 

No arrangement could be more fortunate than 
this. Its steadily widening reach and its unsur- 
passed vista would make as it were a foreground 
and park for the Capitol, emphasizing the fact 
that, owing to the special growth of the city 
to the west, this side has gained paramount 
importance. 

The management of the streets is a difficult 
problem, if we adhere to the vital principle of 
isolating the park from the city, and recognize 
the fact that the grades of the streets can not be 
materially changed, owing to the proximity of 
the subjacent water. But the difficulty may be 

T39 1 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

overcome by retaining only cross streets for 
traffic, and turning them into transverse roads 
of ample width, screened by embankments of 
earth surmounted by trees on each side, and con- 
nected, at the center of the park and in the exact 
line of the vista, by bridges arching twenty feet 
above the present roadbed. 

In this scheme most of the pleasure movement 
would cross the park by slightly curved but toler- 
ably direct drives located close to the transverse 
roads, and nearly parallel with them, thus carry- 
ing out more completely the generally elliptical 
scheme of the park. This plan, whenever it can 
be used conveniently, has special artistic value, 
particularly when, as in this case, a blending veil 
of shade trees can be made to diversify the slightly 
formal appearance of the oft-repeated ovals. 

This arrangement of drives and masked (trans- 
verse roads, and bridges kept in close relations 
with the vistas, it will be readily seen, will naturally 
force the main scheme of park development into 
a series of ovals, commencing at the Capitol and 
extending to the White House, where the same 
idea is repeated in the already constructed ellipses 
of the White Lot and the adjacent public territory. 
It is a fortunate circumstance that the positions of 
the transverse roads cause the ovals steadily to 
diminish in size, dropping progressively to lower 
and lower grades as they approach the Washington 
Monument. Thus in the widening spread of 
territory they impart to the landscape a finished 
and consistent perspective, a harmonious cadence 

[40] 



A PARK FOR THE NATIONAL CAPITAL 

and rhythm of effect, and a finely lengthened 
appearance of distance. 

Outside the ovals, the simplicity and effective- 
ness of the symmetry of which constitutes the 
keynote of the park, we find the drives seeking 
the points of interest and convenience by long 
curving lines, which are so arranged as to mass 
together as much as possible wide stretches of 
lawn, and in that way increase the large and 
dignified quality of the design. 

Owing to the concentration of the most dis- 
tinguished park effects about the main vista and 
ovals, and owing to the proper demand that 
walks, bridle path, and drives shall be close to 
one another so as to afford easy human intercourse 
and to avoid the great inconvenience of losing 
one's way — a risk that accompanies a more wander- 
ing, loosely constructed system — I have placed 
the roads near the lines of the ellipses. I am 
convinced a greater variety of effective views can 
be secured in this way than in any other. 

The treatment of lawns is simple. It is planned 
to leave hollows, meadows, and wide expanses 
of greensward, excepting on each side of the 
pathways and roads; there the shade of trees 
is encouraged, and, fortunately, easily attained. 
Extended masses of foliage already exist, portions 
of which, when displaced by the construction of 
the transverse roads, can be transplanted, after 
proper root pruning, to assist in emphasizing 
and extending the effects of the main vista to 
the Monument. 

[41] 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

Concerning the parkway from Washington Mon- 
ument to the Potomac and the Zoological parks, 
it should be said that, as far as the beginning of 
the precipitous portion of the banks of Rock 
Creek, a formal arrangement of footpaths, drives, 
and bridle roads is secured, whereby the house 
lots are reached by two roads, one on each side 
of the parkway. The space of eight hundred 
feet in the middle is occupied by a park drive, 
by footpaths, and a bridle road, each of which 
takes a direct course parallel with the adjacent 
houses, as shown in the accompanying detail 
plan. 

When the parkway reaches the steep hillside 
of Rock Creek, it is allowed to seek the easiest 
grades. It occupies a large portion of the pictur- 
esque slopes with the winding curves of its drives 
and bridle paths, ending at the boundaries of 
the Zoological Park at the junction of Cathedral 
Avenue and Connecticut Avenue, where it com- 
pletes its course in an entrance so enlarged as 
to include all three avenues. 



42] 



XI 
A MOUNTAIN ROAD ON THE HUDSON 

All roads have a character of their own which 
affords some interest to the passer-by; but now 
and then a road is met that has a striking 
individuality, as is the case with one climbing 
Storm King Mountain. This road is replete with 
features peculiar to itself, rugged beauty, grandeur 
of outlook, and quaint woodland charm. Though 
some beautiful roads have been evolved in a hap- 
hazard way this is no chance road. 

A quarter of a mile from the highway, in a 
nook blasted out of the rocky hillside, the house 
was built. After long study and much weary 
tramping a line of road leading to the house was 
devised, creeping along the difficult contours and 
crossing them at times so as to double twice on 
itself in a length less than a mile. It passed through 
thick woods; across deep ravines; plowed through 
necks of land, forcing its way upward to the 
house, its final destination. Much of the road 
was dynamited from the solid rock and the hollows 
were filled with the blasted fragments. 

Thus a solid rock foundation existed every- 
where either by nature or by filling. Rocky walls 
towered at places and at others steep declivities 
dropped abruptly away to unseen depths. At 
certain points drainage streams, flowing out of 

[43] 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

the sides of the hills, crossed the drive and forced 
the construction of small bridges. For a large 
part of the way the presence of thick deciduous 
woods — oak, birch, beech, dogwood, and other 
native trees — mellows the sunlight which sifts 
through their leaves. Along the sides of the hill 
and slopes vines, such as Virginia creepers, bitter- 
sweet, woodbine, and other native climbers, relieve 
the torn surfaces. The great attraction, however, 
of this road are the vistas cut through the woods 
at various points, especially at the turns. From 
these outlooks wide-reaching views are obtained 
to the east and north over a broad stretch of the 
Hudson River for ten or fifteen miles. Across 
the river one sees to the southeast rugged moun- 
tains repeating on a smaller scale the effect of 
Storm King itself. 

The grade of this road is necessarily steep, ten 
per cent in many places. As we climb around 
its sharp curves we suddenly come out on an open, 
comparatively level field with a lovely outlook 
toward the west and north of hill and valley 
dotted by human habitations at rare intervals. 
Above in its nook stands the homestead of Mr. 
Pagenstecher. 

From this rugged shelf on one side of the house 
extends the opening into the forest, which has been 
cut away. Here through a narrow vista in the 
woodland the eye obtains another and wider view 
of the Hudson. Above the house rises ledge on 
ledge of rock clothed with trees, six hundred feet 
to the top of Storm King. 

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A MOUNTAIN ROAD ON THE HUDSON 

The wild fastnesses of this mountain road with 
its woods and flowers and utter seclusion, and 
glimpses of river and highland, have a wondrous 
charm in autumn. Then it is that the dogwoods, 
oaks, maples, and liquidambars turn crimson and 
gold with the shortening days of approaching 
winter. Not less beautiful are these w r oodland 
aisles clothed with snow when the autumn glories 
have passed. Through the bare branches we get 
glimpses of the Hudson, often ice-bound, but 
always grand and impressive. 

Always this mountain road with its woodland 
beauty and its various distant views reveals con- 
tinual charm throughout the changing seasons. 



[45] 



XII 
AN AUTUMNAL HILLSIDE 

Out in the wild, rugged, broken territory of 
New York not far from Tuxedo is a steep hillside. 
All around are mountains, valleys, and lakes that 
suggest the wilderness of the Adirondacks. At 
its base is a wide-spreading mass of forest trees, 
where Nature placed them — chestnuts, oaks, and 
quantities of dogwoods. On top of this hill, two 
hundred feet high, a spot was found for a vine- 
clad arbor from which could be seen an extended 
view — homestead, meadows, lake, farms, forest- 
clad mountains, and valleys. On one side, the 
forest trees extend part way up the hill and 
include within their borders great masses of lichen- 
stained and weather-beaten rocks. Clustering 
among these rocks have been planted ferns, 
wild native azaleas, various wild flowers suited to 
shady places, sweet fern, Comptonia asplenifolia 
and hosts of small woodland plants. 

Passing along the base of the hill by the edge of 
the forest a road has been carried from the more 
cultivated part of the place. Here a turn for the 
carriage encloses a group of tangled wild Michigan 
roses, six or eight feet high, which bear abundant 
clusters of small, single, pinkish-white flowers in 
late June, and from among them rise several fine 

[46] 



AN AUTUMNAL HILLSIDE 

specimens of the Andromeda arborea, (Oxydendron 
arboreum), or sourwood. 

This charming and little-known tree is from 
the region of Kentucky. It has large, deep green, 
velvety leaves and bears in mid-summer tassels 
or plumes of milk-white flowers, rising high above 
the mass of its foliage. This plant is used here 
to the number of many hundreds, extending right 
and left to the very crest. In autumn the richness 
of its color is unsurpassed. At certain hours of 
the day when the sunlight falls on these leaves its 
fire seems to have transfused itself into the texture 
of the leaf, so vivid is the color. 

Another plant on this hillside that is equally 
rich in color but quite different is Euonymus alatus 
or Japanese burning bush. The color of its leaf is 
pure crimson of a peculiar shade. With the 
Andromedas are mingled large quantities of white 
flowering dogwood so well known throughout the 
country for its autumn color. Sumac springs up 
here and there, sweet gum, or liquidambar, and 
Viburnum prunifolium or nannyberry. 

Down through the center from the arbor at the 
top of the hill extends a narrow open stretch. 
Here, in order to give a vista and sense of variety, 
were planted a lot of low shrubs red in autumn, 
Itea virginica. Along winding grassy paths skirt- 
ing the place are planted quantities of native 
azaleas and hybrid azaleas of similar shades, their 
autumnal foliage rivaling the beauty of their 
spring flowers. 

Throughout this plantation are not only such 

r 47 1 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

trees as the liquidambars and red maples planted 
for autumn effect, but white birches and graceful 
ash trees to lend variety to the scene and enhance 
the typical woodland effect. Many smaller forms of 
woodland flowers and foliage are dispersed among 
the rocks, and on the banks are honeysuckles, 
saxifrages, sedums, and some wild grape vines. 
Standing at the base of this hill or in the vine- 
clad arbor at the top and looking over its steep 
slopes, the masses of rich color embraced by the 
eye form the ideal of an American autumn 
landscape. 



[48] 



XIII 
THE COLONIAL GARDEN 

In Van Cortlandt Park, near the railroad station 
and the skating-pond, was until a few years ago a 
marshy depression lying four-square between high 
banks. To the north of it stood the colonial 
mansion of the Van Cortlandts. 

In the course of time the Colonial Dames 
leased this mansion for a long term of years and 
filled it with all kinds of revolutionary and colonial 
treasures. 

Coincident with the development of this colonial 
treasure house the idea of a sunken garden was 
conceived. As it progressed in development, it 
took on naturally the term colonial by virtue of 
its association with the colonial mansion and 
because its character suggested the formality of 
the gardens of those days. Circumstances which 
very properly govern the design of gardens led 
to the use of canals on three sides. Owing to the 
fact that a rapid stream ran out of Van Cortlandt 
Lake a few hundred feet away, these canals were 
employed to curb the irregularities of the stream 
and give a definite boundary to a greater part of the 
garden. The presence of these canals has sug- 
gested the name Dutch Garden which it is some- 
times called, but in reality the Dutch character 

[49] 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

ends with the canals themselves. Nearly every- 
thing else recalls American scenery conventional- 
ized. 

The garden is arranged in squares and planted 
formally for the purpose of conveniently exhibiting 
its tree-and-flower effect to those using its paths. 
The banks surrounding it have no formal lines 
in their treatment, being left as Nature made 
them, except that their natural charms are en- 
hanced by plantations of native shrubs, rhodo- 
dendrons, laurels, dogwoods, etc. 

In the center of the group of squares is a circular 
fountain basin with water-lilies. The spray from 
this is reduced to such a degree that the aquatic 
plants are not injured by the spatter of the water. 
On the outer edge of the open space around the 
fountain are seats. Behind these again are large 
specimens of the beautiful American shade tree, 
the bronzed leaf ash, which naturally assumes 
formal and compact shapes. These trees stand 
also on the extreme outer boundaries on the 
corners of the tract and form the most striking 
feature in the garden. Lower, more refined and 
delicate, and less positive in tone are the pairs of 
weeping birches set on each side at the entrances 
to the bridges which cross the canal and lead to 
the central fountain. 

A scheme of pairs of specimen evergreens on 
each side of the walk, and opposite each other, 
is established throughout the place. Every one 
of these specimens, which consist of junipers, 
spruces, arbor vitae, pines, yews, hemlocks, and 

[50] 



THE COLONIAL GARDEN 

other erect-growing trees and shrubs, is carefully 
arranged in relation to its neighbor to secure the 
most agreeable gradation of color from golden 
green to the almost black tone of the yews. 

A touch of golden color is allowed here and 
there, but is kept thoroughly in abeyance; for 
yellow is suggestive of abnormal and unhealthy 
conditions — decay. 

A large part of these squares is left open and 
free to encourage a rich velvety turf intended to 
lend breadth and dignity to the picture. In front 
of the evergreens along the borders of the paths 
comes the floral or perennial plant effect in narrow 
beds. These beds are about eight feet wide and 
all parts are easily reached from the path or 
greensward without trampling the plants. The 
height of these plants is kept comparatively low 
by selecting lower-growing species in order to 
retain the breadth and simplicity of the place. 
Plants from six inches to three feet high are used, 
and consist of certain kinds of irises, hardy tulips, 
narcissi, anemones, columbines, pinks of various 
sorts, sedums, saxifrages, coreopsis, daffodils, lark- 
spurs, fox-gloves, hollyhocks, hyacinths, the more 
dwarf forms of lilies, lilies of the valley, peonies, 
phloxes, salvias, snowdrops. 

Beyond the canals at the west, as far as the 
bank, is arranged a rose garden with the climbing 
sorts on the outer borders covering the bank or 
trained on trellises. Within the area are the free- 
blooming sorts that flower from June to October. 

It should be explained that, in order to secure 

[51] 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

a well-drained and fertile soil for this garden, it 
was found necessary to raise the level with many 
thousands of cubic yards of ordinary earth to 
overcome the ill effects of the underlying marsh 
land on which the garden is built. Sufficient 
agricultural tile drainage was used to prevent the 
undue accumulation of water from any source. 
Over this tile drainage was spread a layer, about 
one foot and a half thick, of rich garden mold 
containing well-balanced amounts of the necessary 
constituents of fertile soil, sand, clay, lime, and 
humus. 

The lawns were sown, not sodded. The bor- 
ders of the walks were sodded at least a foot wide 
and the walks themselves were made with rubble 
foundations and trap-rock screenings. Instead of 
balustrades or rails, the borders of the entrances 
to the bridges and the steps of this garden are 
guarded by means of rock-work contrived to re- 
semble nature, the rocks peering out here and 
there from the earth, with vines and low shrubs 
and birches intermingled. 



[52 




z 

< 

h 



; 



»B g| il 1 1 5?? 



XIV 
TWO COUNTRY-PLACES 

A country-place like the one we shall now 
consider at Carlisle in the rich farming land of 
lower Pennsylvania, has many advantages. The 
country is gently rolling and the soil is a sandy 
loam free from stone and naturally fertile. The 
place is situated between two roads and ends at 
their junction. It is in wedge form and about 
fifteen acres in extent. 

The house was an old-fashioned one and has 
been given the modern colonial touch in the way 
of columns and other classical suggestions. A 
number of fine old trees, maples, elms, chestnuts, 
etc., exist in the neighborhood of the house. 
Otherwise the area of the grounds had been given 
up chiefly to meadow and pasture lands. When 
the recent improvements were undertaken the 
ground was found covered with a dense growth of 
alfalfa, and though by nature beautifully rolling 
with gentle swells, the entire territory had to be 
broken up and graded in order to manage the 
drainage properly and to soften all contour lines. 
For the purpose of securing the most effective 
approach to the house and of giving opportunity 
for effective grouping of trees and shrubs with 
long vistas, the main road was brought in near 

[53] 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

the extreme apex of the place. After passing 
thirty or forty feet into the grounds this road turns 
with a short sweep to the middle of the property 
and then follows its course on long gently curving 
lines which gradually approach the rear of the 
house situated on a plateau, thus affording a fine 
view of the most attractive side of the building. 

Just after the road passes the house it divides, 
going in one direction to the garage and out- 
buildings, and in the other to a turn in front of the 
main entrance to the house and then off to the 
extreme corner of the place to the highway. Two 
short walks lead to an entrance to the house 
from the main road. The endeavor has evidently 
been to give long graceful lines of roads and 
walks and so divide the territory as to set apart 
at least three large lawns with a long vista reach- 
ing across at least two of them. 

The planting on this place is especially worthy 
of attention because on a very favorable piece of 
land it illustrates well how open lawns and attract- 
ive approaches can be greatly improved by a 
carefully devised scheme of planting. 

At the entrance gate near the apex of the prop- 
erty are planted two Norway maples, one on each 
side. Around them are Forsyth ia viridissima with 
their yellow flowers and vigorous growth. Smaller 
in growth and size of leaf, but picturesque and 
compact, are the Regel's privet planted on the turn 
of the road on each side. 

At the apex and farthest point of the place, 
about three hundred feet away, are planted a mass 

[541 



If 




mm 



TWO COUNTRY-PLACES 

of hemlocks. The theory of the planting of ever- 
greens is to shut in the coldest exposure of the 
place and give it greenness of color the season 
through and the sense of warmth in winter. 
Following the most approved practice, almost all 
the evergreens on this place are in one great mass 
or series of groups blending one into the other. 

It might be well to point out that in this partic- 
ular situation some considerable length of factory 
buildings thrusts its ugliness into the view of nearly 
the entire area of the landscape treated. To shut 
out this objectionable feature as quickly as possible 
a number of white willows were planted, and 
mingled with them were a few of the red-stemmed 
kind. These willows w r ere intended to grow 
rapidly to a great height and then to be removed 
when the evergreens had grown to sufficient size 
to screen the place satisfactorily. 

The majority of the evergreens used were 
white pines, Douglas spruce, Colorado or blue 
spruce, the Oriental spruce, and Alcock's spruce, 
all of which are hardy, compact, and in the course 
of years attain great size. 

Extending all along the fence bordering the 
highway clear to the house are irregular groups 
of shrubbery disposed in bays and points of 
foliage so as to give a park-like effect. These 
shrubs are dwarf barberries, white flowering 
dogwoods, forsythias, hydrangeas, bush honey- 
suckles, snowballs, and here and there dotted 
among them several specimens of the beautiful 
Chinese and Japanese magnolias. 

[55] 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

The drive itself is shaded with maples, elms, 
and ashes planted at irregular distances from the 
edge of the road and occasionally running out 
into the lawn so as to take away the effect of a 
mere open field. At intervals on the turns of the 
road groups of large-sized shrubbery are thrown 
boldly and effectively on each side so as to give 
a sense of variety and surprise to persons driving 
to the house. As the road sweeps up to the 
house it finds masses of deciduous shrubbery and 
trees, shutting out the kitchen and laundry end. 
At the point where it reaches the front door and 
the large open porch a liberal turn has been 
devised, and here in the oval are planted two 
fine groups of Japanese maples and on both 
sides of the porch are arranged large groups 
of beautiful evergreen Japanese azalea amcena. 
A short path leads to the side of the house where 
is another door and two paths diverge a short 
distance to the street. 

Massed on both sides of these foot entrances, 
and extending one hundred feet both ways along 
the front fence to where the deciduous shrubs 
begin, are masses of hybrid rhododendrons of the 
finest and richest-colored varieties backed up in 
the center by hardy native rhododendron maxi- 
mums, while hybrid rhododendrons of smaller size 
and greatest beauty of flower are kept generally 
in the foreground. The outline of the bed and the 
contour of the masses change continually in 
graceful curves and billows of foliage. 

A drive leads away from the main entrance of 
[56] 



TWO COUNTRY-PLACES 

the house around the turn and out to the highway. 
Around this entrance large masses of white pines 
are grouped. From them, leading across the 
place to the evergreens which cluster around the 
garage, are masses of deciduous shrubs forming 
an irregular hedge with a number of large shade 
trees, existing and planted, rising from their midst. 

The road from the house to the garage is shaded 
by occasional maples, and where it joins the main 
drive a considerable mass of trees and shrubs is 
gathered together. From openings in this road 
one can get a long view through a shallow valley 
unimpeded by trees or shrubs which wander out 
but do not obstruct it. 

There are several other open lawns and vistas 
of a similar kind on the place, and the art of the 
planting is made to increase their value and 
effectiveness. 



An Alabama country-place shows quite similar 
treatment in respect to contriving vistas and to 
planting on both sides of the entrance gate and 
at the sharp curves of the drive. 

The hillside is extremely steep and, it will be 
seen, the road had to be contrived so as to run as 
much as possible on the contours of the property 
with considerable cut and fill at different points. 
The main open part is kept in front of the house 
so as to give a sense of breadth to the view from the 
principal entrance. The steepness of the road 
has been necessarily allowed to take the heavy 

[57] 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

grade of ten per cent which is considered in 
most cases beyond the limit of comfort. Much 
of this hillside was sodded on account of its abrupt- 
ness, and other portions of it were planted with 
Bermuda grass which thrives well in this climate 
and although brown in winter gives a beautiful 
green surface in summer. In some places this 
winter condition has been overcome by sowing 
perennial rye-grass which comes up quickly and 
gives a bright greensward during the winter 
months. 

The peculiarity of the climate of Alabama is that, 
in spite of its being hot and more or less dry, a 
large proportion of the deciduous trees and shrubs 
of the North will grow there. On the other hand, 
many beautiful evergreens that thrive throughout 
Europe and do not thrive in the North will also 
grow there, such as the beautiful Cedrus deodara 
or Indian cypress, the southern Magnolia grandi- 
flora, and others. It is a little too far south for 
rhododendrons to thrive well, but the shining 
leaves of the laurel seen in Great Britain by the 
million do well here, though in the Northern 
States they are almost always cut down by the 
frost. Large numbers were used on this plan 
at the points marked 15. Their growth is very 
rapid in this climate. It might be said that this 
remark applies to all trees and shrubs growing 
so far south, probably on account of the compara- 
tively long seasons and the warm stimulating 
climate. 

It may be noted that here, as was the case in 
[58] 





CO 







Ik 




Hn^ii 



TWO COUNTRY-PLACES 

the other country-place in Pennsylvania and as 
should be the case in all country-places, the ever- 
green trees are massed together in a territory 
by themselves, diversified only now and then by 
an outlying birch or other graceful deciduous 
tree. A group of the fine blue spruce of the seed- 
ling type, finer in color and shape than the deep 
blue of the grafted form, stands by itself in the 
middle of the lawn next to the street on a steep 
slope. Nearer the house are the beautiful blue 
concolor spruces with an English yew and a 
Lawson cypress not far away. 

The mass of the evergreen plantation is made 
up of the Douglas spruce, Colorado blue spruce, 
hemlock, noble silver fir, and nearer the house 
the finer forms of the Indian cypress and pinsapo 
fir with a mingling of Retinospora obtusa and the 
green form of our northern red cedar. Near the 
garage are Douglas spruces, junipers, and ret- 
inosporas. In front of the house on the turn are 
more junipers and yews and near by are the laurel 
groves. These evergreens are located so as to shut 
out regions and buildings which need screening 
and to give a warm, solid background to the home 
territory throughout the year. 

In front of the house alongside the road and 
walk are masses of deciduous trees and shrubs 
so disposed as to open unexpected vistas and 
shade the place. The trees are the ordinary ones 
of the North, elms, lindens, plane-trees, and the 
quaint and hardy gingko or maiden-hair tree. 
Adjoining the house in beds around the bay- 

[59] 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

windows and corners and alongside the entrance 
are Azalea amcena and one or two other forms 
of the beautiful flowering Japanese azaleas, and 
bush honeysuckles. The autumn colors of this 
place are illustrated by masses of white flowering 
dogwoods and the native Andromeda arborea or 
sour- wood. 



60 



XV 

A JAPANESE TEA-GARDEN 

Under the unfavorable circumstances for locat- 
ing a Japanese tea-garden, a landscape-gardening 
project at Southampton to which we shall now 
give attention, the best that could be done was 
to hide it in a corner, where large trees screened its 
sides and rear with the help of an adjoining 
carriage-house and garage. In front, a softly 
rolling lawn extended one hundred yards to Mrs. 
Thompson's cottage and a little to the south more 
than twice the distance to the shores of a lake. 

The building erected by Japanese carpenters 
was, for a tea-house, somewhat lofty, but pictur- 
esque and characteristic. It was impossible to 
give the full Japanese spirit to the surroundings 
on account of conditions ; therefore, it was thought 
best to avoid the introduction of many common 
features of Japanese gardens such as artificial 
pools, iris borders, miniature winding streams 
crossed by diminutive bridges, and in addition 
numerous dwarfed oaks, pines, etc., a foot high 
and perhaps fifty years old. All this seemed too 
strained and artificial, in short, entirely unsuited 
to the place. 

The trees and shrubs used were simply Japanese, 
the growth of some of which in time would be 

r 611 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

twenty feet or more and tend to shut in and isolate 
from the rest of the place the Oriental air of the 
building. 

These trees consisted of cryptomerias and the 
following : 

Juniperus Chinensis, Arg. Var. Retinospora obtusa lycopodi- 
Juniperus Japonica aurea oides 

Juniperus Japonica pfitzeriana Retinospora obtusa tetragona 
Juniperus squamata 



Retinospora obtusa gracilis 



aurea 
Taxus cuspidata brevifolia 
Tsuga Sieboldii 
Retinospora obtusa gracilis Cryptomeria Lobbi compacta 

nana Pseudolarix Kaempferi 

Retinospora obtusa pygmea pi nu s Massoniana 

Retinospora obtusa nana aurea Sciadopitys verticilata 

It may be possible in such a situation to make 
something that represents in a fashion a Japanese 
garden, though it is doubtful whether in America 
good taste in landscape gardening can afford to 
admit its presence, so alien is it to our modes of 
thought and action. 

Under the best conditions, wherever visible in 
our landscape, any Japanese garden will be almost 
certain to strike a note of discord. The best 
that can be done with it, outside of an art museum, 
may be illustrated by a description of the way it 
was used on a small estate seen by the writer on 
the outskirts of Paris. Here a territory of three 
or four acres was treated in a thoroughly scenic 
and academic way. On one side of the French 
windows and open veranda of the villa were the 
vegetable garden and the outhouses. At the 

[62] 



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i-uimli 



A JAPANESE TEA-GARDEN 

front extended a bit of turf like a rich, green velvet 
carpet, bordering which bulked a thick mass of 
native trees, beeches, maples, elms, horse-chest- 
nuts, etc. From the end of this plantation 
appeared a winding stream or brook, planted 
with wild flowers and spanned by rustic bridges, 
with groups of trees and shrubs used in a natural 
style, which contrived to help the perspective 
scheme and lent the effect of distance. This 
apparently completed the place, making Nature 
quaint, dainty, neat, polished, and highly civilized. 

Passing down a walk bordering the main group 
of trees the tour de force of the place suddenly 
appears from unexpected spaces : a Japanese tea- 
garden and a perfect one. The brook is bordered 
by Japanese flowers and Japanese maples and 
cherries, both dwarf and large-growing. To com- 
plete it all, there appeared an actual Japanese 
home in the shape of a little cottage occupied by 
the gardener and his wife. The place was small, 
but the labor and genius applied to it were in their 
way astonishing. You were in another world 
when you reached it, and before you reached it 
you did not dream of its existence. 

All this is very admirable and it is characteristic 
of the way the French do much of their landscape 
gardening. In America we want things different; 
hedge-rows full of bright-berried bushes and varied 
autumn colors; meadows full of pepperidges, 
liquidambars, and thorns growing in irregular 
groups along flowing brooks; wide-spreading grass 
lands backed by woods generations old; hillsides 

[63] 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

of sumac and dogwood. On lines like these we 
should work out our landscape art in America, 
holding Nature as we find her, with only such 
changes as our daily needs demand in the way of 
comforts and conveniences and those horticultural 
enrichments which do not violate the native spirit 
of the scene. 



[64] 



XVI 
THE SAGE SAG HARBOR HOME 

Mrs. Sage selected a home in Sag Harbor 
because she had many relatives and associations 
there. The old homestead she had lived in as a 
child, and the entire town, recalled memories 
of her youth. 

The house she finally bought had been, fifty 
years ago, the domicile of an old whaling merchant, 
and had the simplicity and dignity of the best 
houses of that period. High Colonial columns set 
off the front, extending two stories, as one often 
sees in New England. Such a place, it was 
thought, should be kept with as little change as 
possible, so much only as was essential to fit 
the necessities and comforts of modern days. 

A fence made of round, white pickets, quaint 
and in keeping with the buildings, enclosed about 
three acres of ground. The lawn in front of the 
house was dignified by the presence of three or 
four great arching elms, with trunks three feet 
in diameter and about sixty feet high. Along 
the side of the house was a border of box and a 
little terrace across reaching a lower level. Old- 
fashioned flowers peeped up in corners and nooks. 
The entire grounds had a distinctly old- time air. 

It was not easy to suggest a landscape treat- 

[65] 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

ment of this place because anything of the garden- 
esque, picturesque, or other typical landscape 
method would certainly mar its spirit. It was 
felt necessary to sacrifice nearly all ambitious 
attempts of this kind. Straight walks bordering 
the house and extending back to the stable and 
vegetable garden were made; not because they 
were, in the ordinary sense, beautiful, but because 
they were fitting. 

The grounds in front of the house were developed 
in conventional landscape style by means of a 
curving road coming in at one gate and passing 
the house-front to the other gate, following more 
or less the arc of a circle. The same landscape 
treatment for the front was completed by arrang- 
ing, in irregular beds along the borders of the 
fence and curving in and out, great masses of 
hybrid rhododendrons of the richest and most 
hardy kinds — crimson, purple, pink, and white. 
The plants on the remainder of the place con- 
sisted almost entirely of roses and old-fashioned 
flowers like larkspur; while shrubs and trees com- 
pleted what w T as not accomplished by the rhodo- 
dendrons, various kinds of dogwoods, snowballs, 
bush honeysuckles, and some silver maples and 
ash trees. The old-fashioned flowers were planted 
on the borders along the edges of the paths. 

The principal landscape effect of this place, 
after all, is the lawn. Here it was possible to 
secure a long sweep of turf extending from the 
front to the rear of the grounds with bordering 
plantations on each side. It should be said that 

[66] 



THE SAGE SAG HARBOR HOME 

this scheme of treatment has been amplified from 
time to time by extending it over such additional 
ground to the west as has been bought by Mrs. 
Sage to enlarge the surroundings of the house. 

The construction of this place was somewhat 
difficult. The soil was poor and sandy. The 
dry climate made it peculiarly difficult to grow 
grass or trees and shrubs. In order to overcome 
the difficulties presented in the character of the 
soil, quantities of clay loam were brought from 
several miles away. It is a scarce article in that 
region. This material was spread over the ground 
to the depth of six inches and on its surface was 
spread and well incorporated three inches of 
thoroughly decomposed humus, without which 
the clay loam would not have been a perfect soil. 
The shaping and grading of the lawn with this 
soil were very carefully done. Wherever the 
planting was located, there elevated areas a few 
inches above the general level were made. The 
remaining surface of the lawn was kept on easy- 
flowing lines, just varying enough from the original 
to give it a certain touch of elegance and artistic 
effect. 

The border of the drive and the edges of the 
shrub and flower beds were carefully sodded with 
strips about one foot wide. The roadbed itself 
was made of an asphaltic earth which had been 
found elastic and enduring, agreeable to the 
tread, and not open to the objections of ordinary 
asphalt. The character of the rhododendron 
plantations was made irregular in appearance, 

[07 1 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

up and down just as Nature under favorable 
conditions would do it, but with just a touch of 
art. These beds, moreover, consist of masses 
of single kinds of rhododendrons, a large group 
of red here, a mass of purple there, the whites 
carefully kept where they would blend well from 
purple into red. Some beds, again, were laid 
out all of one kind, Altogether there may be 
fifteen or twenty varieties. It should be said that 
the climatic conditions at Sag Harbor are favor- 
able to rhododendrons. Some of these groups 
surround the elms, and the eye is led in and out 
among them in a way that tends to magnify the 
area of the grounds. The large size of the house 
made it necessary to give the grounds as extended 
an effect as possible. 

The lawns were sown with Kentucky blue- 
grass and have now developed into fine turf 
without further fertilization than the harrowing 
into the sandy soil of a liberal quantity of thor- 
oughly decayed humus. 

In a corner of the place in the rear, to one side, 
and shut off by the lattice work of a clothes- 
drying ground, is a vegetable garden containing 
asparagus and strawberry beds, raspberries, black- 
berries, and the usual vegetables for the daily 
use of the house. Across the extreme rear of the 
place is a road arranged for service purposes in 
connection with the garden, outbuildings, and 
kitchen. 



[68] 




CONTOUR' MAP 
SCALE 1-40.' 



ORIGINAL CONTOURS OF PIERSON HIGH SCHOOL GROUNDS 



XVII 
PIERSON HIGH SCHOOL 

The situation of this school is on a high knoll 
with hummocky rolling land all around. Coarse, 
gravelly sand constitutes the soil of the entire 
property, sterile in the extreme. The location 
of the building evidently had to be on the apex 
or highest point of this territory; but the space 
was so narrow that the entire crown of the hill 
was cut down two to three feet in order to give 
a sufficient space in front of the structure to allow 
a vehicle to turn conveniently and give the build- 
ing a sense of fitness to its surroundings. 

The grading of the rest of the place was com- 
plicated and difficult. Irregularities had to be 
removed and hollows rilled up to secure long 
sweeping lines and graceful contours. Wherever 
the planting-spaces came, slightly raised contours 
were made to give prominence to the effect of the 
trees and shrubs set there: larkspurs, hollyhocks, 
irises, bleeding heart, and the like. At least 
twelve thousand cubic feet of soil were moved 
from one place to another before this work was 
completed. This scheme was carried out from 
calculations in accordance with sections made 
from a contour map with elevations of one foot 
shown at the intersections of squares of fifty 
feet. 

[69] 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

The enclosure of this territory was accomplished 
by a wire fence made of netting and iron posts 
anchored in the ground. 

A short drive with an open plaza in front of 
the main door of the school-building was laid out, 
and two winding walks lead from the two corners 
of the property adjacent to the most important 
road bounding it. 

The scheme of the planting was suitable to 
that of most small places, an irregular border of 
trees and shrubs around the outskirts with the 
entrance and corners emphasized with larger 
groups of trees and shrubs. 

The theory of the treatment of the grove of 
oaks, in the rear, was to keep it open and encourage 
grass. Appropriately placed are seats, swings, 
and other devices for outdoor amusements. 

Owing to the somewhat bleak and dreary 
character of the scenery and the fact that the 
climate of Sag Harbor is softened by the misty 
sea air and favorable to the growth of evergreens, 
a considerable plantation of Douglas firs and 
white pines was used around both foot entrances 
in order to give the place a cozy and comfortable 
appearance in winter. These are among the 
best evergreens for such a climate and soil. 

On both sides of the walks, about forty or 
fifty feet apart, and along the borders of the prop- 
erty as far back as the school-house, were planted 
Norway maples which do well in comparatively 
poor soil, attain considerable size, and retain their 
health and beauty for many years. On each 

[70] 



L 




PIERSON HIGH SCHOOL 

side of some steps, constructed on one of the 
paths to overcome a steep grade, are planted 
several Norway maples and between them a 
large mass of the beautiful Regel's privet which 
keeps picturesque and comparatively dwarf for 
many years. On the other side of the building, 
at the junction of the path and the drive, a con- 
siderable group of native hawthorn is placed, and 
at the entrance of the drive are grouped large 
masses of snowballs, known as the highbush 
cranberry, and Regel's privet. In front of the 
building no trees are planted, so that an open 
vista may be left directly across the longest way 
to the main street. 

Throughout the entire borders among the 
Norway maples are planted hydrangeas, bush 
honeysuckles, forsythias, Japanese raspberries, 
snowballs, Spiraea opulifolia or ninebark, and other 
shrubs. These kinds are selected for their various 
bloom throughout the season and their vigorous 
nature adaptable to all kinds of soil. Al newly 
planted trees were carefully staked to prevent 
blowing over. 

The wire fence surrounding the place was 
planted with Japanese honeysuckles which in a 
year or two will make a complete hedge effect 
of almost evergreen foliage. 

In reference to walks and concrete steps which 
in this instance were used to overcome an especially 
difficult grade, it should be mentioned that where, 
as in this case, the arrangement is feasible, steps 
should be clustered together with frequent land- 

[71] 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

ings and always at the steepest part of the terri- 
tory traversed. The risers of the steps should 
never be more than six inches high, and even an 
inch less is better. The tread should be eleven 
or twelve inches. A low curb on the side will 
protect the bordering bank from injury by those 
afoot. The banks on each side should be heaped 
up and on them trees and shrubs so planted as 
to keep the steps out of view. 

No rock-work was used in connection with the 
steps of these school-grounds as the country 
there is sandy and free from anything suggesting 
the use of rocks. 

The improvement and preparation of the poor 
gravelly soil for the purpose of making the lawn 
were brought about by carting clay loam from a 
place three miles distant and spreading it about 
six inches thick and then mixing with it two 
inches of well-decomposed humus to supply the 
necessary organic matter. 

The borders of the walks had to be made with 
strips of sod, but the main lawn was sown with 
Kentucky blue-grass as a base, mixed with Rhode 
Island bent, creeping bent, and redtop. This 
seed was raked in thoroughly and then rolled 
with a heavy iron hand-roller without further 
treatment except to supply moisture from hydrants 
which were set every two hundred feet throughout 
the grounds. These hydrants were rendered neces- 
sary because of the sandy soil and infrequent 
rain which characterize the climate of Sag Harbor. 
Were it not for the humid air from the near-by 

[72] 




PLANTING PLAN 

SCALE :i-40 



PLANTING-PLAN OF PIERSON HIGH SCHOOL GROUNDS 



PIERSON HIGH SCHOOL 

ocean, growth would be almost impossible. Finally 
the bare appearance of the school-building was 
relieved by covering a considerable portion of the 
walls with Japanese ivy. 

The walks and roads were covered with the 
same kind of asphaltic earth as that used at Mrs. 
Sage's Sag Harbor home and for the same reason. 
This High School was built and the grounds laid 
out by Mrs. Sage as a donation to her native 
place. 



[73] 



XVIII 
AN ISLAND HOME 

In the midst of Long Island Sound, a mile or 
more from the Connecticut shore, stands a sandy 
bowlder-strewn island and a house or two of no 
particular consequence not far away. A light- 
house for years has stood on one point. Other- 
wise the island has been little developed, having 
principally been the abode of a wide-spread growth 
of ailanthus, the suckers of which have overrun 
almost everything. No one apparently knows 
whence the ailanthus came, but it has taken full 
possession with the exception of a few isolated 
outlying patches of bayberry bushes and wild 
vines. 

The last owner conceived the idea of making 
himself a home on this barren island with its 
pure air and tide-swept shores. Sailing and 
boating he could easily command, and the house, 
barns, garden, lawns, and boat landings he pro- 
posed to create in a somewhat leisurely way that 
would fit it gradually to his needs and secure 
for him the greatest enjoyment of the natural 
beauties of the place. 

The house designed for him is simple and 
fitted to the spot. It is of no special type of 
architecture unless it be that of a Norman farm 

f 74 1 



AN ISLAND HOME 

house. It is long and rambling and affords 
every comfort and even luxury. The dining-room 
and associated apartments stand a hundred feet 
away from the main house, connected by a vine- 
clad pergola and a garden. At the other end 
of the group of buildings has been erected a 
boat landing and all along the front is con- 
structed a great sea wall, at some points twenty 
feet high, forming a series of platforms on the 
highest of which stands the main house. 

This sea wall makes one of the most notable 
features of the place, with its massive pile of big 
bowlders, some of which are many tons in weight. 
The base of the sea wall is much wider than the 
top, thus giving a sense of solidity. The topmost 
edge, where cut coping would be generally placed, 
is finished with water-worn bowlders of smaller 
size and comparatively even surfaces, giving only 
a slightly waving line. On the inside of this 
first parapet wall is carried a hidden path about 
two feet below the top of the wall and bounded 
on the other side by the wall supporting the upper 
terrace on which the house stands. 

Pockets of earth are contrived along the edge 
of this path on both sides where vines can be 
planted, particularly Virginia creeper, actinidia, 
and the hybrid wichuriana roses. The object of 
these climbers, especially on the outer wall, is 
to modify its bleak aspect by occasional masses 
of clinging foliage. The front of this sea wall 
is usually wind and wave swept. An attempt 
has been made still further to modify the bleak - 

[75] 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

ness of the bare wall and bowlder-strewn shores 
by planting bullrushes, the tall salt marsh-grass 
with its brown plumes, and the native grass of 
the island. 

One peculiarity of the sea wall is that it presents 
the appearance of having been built without 
cement, consequently it contains many nooks 
and corners which, by the use of a few scraps of 
stone here and there, can be made to hold a 
considerable quantity of earth. These inter- 
stices have been filled with a strong clay mold 
brought from the mainland, the native soil 
being too light and sandy to hold plants in 
these spaces. 

Some of the nooks are occupied by dwarf 
plants like andromedas, and certain evergreen 
azaleas and rhododendrons are planted at the 
base of the wall, where also are the vines. In 
the holes above are planted saxifrages, sedums, 
prickly pears, and other small rock plants that 
grow with little moisture or depth of soil. In 
other places, especially in the cracks of the pave- 
ment of the terraces, wild tuft grasses are set out 
in spots here and there. All this is done to give 
the effect that nature had retained or at least 
regained some foothold on these bare rocks. 
With the same view of suggesting that nature had 
undertaken to regain possession were planted 
many red cedars and Douglas spruces from 
five to ten feet in height, on the land side of the 
group of buildings to the north and east. Between 
these cedars and the group of buildings masses 

[76] 



AN ISLAND HOME 

of deciduous trees and shrubs shut in and protected 
the house from northerly storms. 

The island itself in other parts was given over 
to open lawns, groves of evergreen and deciduous 
trees, and occasional masses of wild bayberry- 
bush effects. The ailanthus was almost entirely 
rooted out except an occasional isolated specimen, 
which was retained on account of its essential 
beauty, for there is no more desirable tree than 
the ailanthus if it were not for its suckering pro- 
pensities and disagreeable odor. 

The general appearance of the island was not 
seriously modified by all this work; just enough 
home-like effect of lawns and trees was introduced 
to suggest the idea of human habitation. 

The vegetable garden was shut in on at least 
three sides by farm buildings and high rough 
banks constructed of roots and turf accumulated 
in removing the ailanthus and cultivating the 
soil. Over these rough ramparts were planted 
wild vines of all sorts; Virginia creepers, grapes, 
honeysuckles, and bittersweet. Within this inclos- 
ure were set the vegetable garden and poultry 
yard. By this means the general effect of the 
place was kept comparatively natural and wild. 

The only essentially artificial feature of this 
island treatment lay in the house garden, and 
this was entirely screened on all sides by vine- 
clad pergola, house, dining-room, and shrubbery, 
deciduous tree and red cedar plantation. 

Three designs were made for the treatment 
of this one-hundred-feet four-square garden. 

T771 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

The first result to be sought for this house garden 
was to inclose it with deciduous shrubs and vines 
on all sides. To the north a solid row of California 
privet, Ligustrum ovalifolium, w r as set three feet 
apart in the row. This privet is liable to become 
somewhat stiff in form on account of the 
pruning necessary to fit it for a hedge. For 
the same reason it is apt to become bare at the 
bottom. In order to overcome this tendency 
and vary and solidify the effect, the Kegel's 
privet, Ligustrum regelianum, was used along 
the base of the hedge. This, with the trees and 
the shrubs on the farther side, afforded very 
necessary shelter to the rose garden adjoining. 
Next to this rose garden was arranged a border 
of deciduous shrubs with herbaceous plants on each 
side and then the general grouping of the garden 
across to the pergola. At the extreme eastern end 
of the garden is a small water-lily pool and against 
the dining-room building are masses of rhododen- 
drons with red cedars among them. The general 
effect of the place is an irregularly bordered 
series of three paths of grass, running at right 
angles to the house and forming long vistas. 

For the treatment of the garden itself, which 
is one hundred feet four-square, these alternative 
designs were made. 

The first of these schemes contemplates an 
effect of evergreens in the main garden through- 
out the year. This presupposes the presence 
of climbers, roses, and deciduous shrubs in other 
parts of the garden. The evergreens used are 

[78] 



PLANTING PLAN FOR GARDEN BELONGING TO 

ALFRED MESTRE ESQ. 

SCALE- 










'•'.;■ *- 



m 



m 



?m=h 



i 




1 BerOerrs Ihunbertfn 

Z Andromeda Arborea 

5 Corpus /''/or/da rlubra 

* U/acs 

5 Euonymas A/atus 

€ r'/burnam S/ebo/d/ 

7 Spiraea Anthony fVa/erer 

8 Acer Po/ymorphum 

9 ttburnum Di/atarum 
JO Spiraea Tbunbsrgn 

II Phodofypus Hernoides 

1Z Phododendrons 

J 3 Anemone; Uapontco PnH 

14 Anemona ijaponico White 

15 /r/s tfaemp/ern 
J6 Ph/ox Decussoto 
J7 Poses 

J8 Oaustrum Ora/ifo/iam 

J9 /.igustrum Pege/anum 

20 Wh,/e Strch 

21 tied Cedar 



iiftoro 



3 Gait/ardfo Ore 

C Paeoma Offic 

D 5to*e$io Cfoneo 

£ Anemone Queen Chor/afc 

f Anemone Wh/r/ivind 

G Pn/ojr White 

M Ph/ox An*, or Crimson 

J Dion thus Lot* fohus 

ti Sedum 

L Saxifrage 



Sam yet Parsons c Co 



PLAN OF A SMALL GARDEN ON SHEFFIELD ISLAND, CONNECTICUT 



AN ISLAND HOME 

different varieties of Japanese retinospora, juniper, 
yew, both Japanese and American, and the curious 
umbrella pine of Japan closely allied to the yews. 
By the employment of about a dozen varieties 
of these evergreens a wide variation of color effect 
is produced, ranging from the deepest green 
through the shades of gold, purple, and blue. In 
all cases the most dwarf plants are kept in the 
central beds, with the sizes increasing in undulating 
contours, with high points carefully developed in 
each group, a system without formality. These beds 
spread like a Persian carpet over a broad stretch 
of the center of the garden. Many low dwarf 
evergreens are kept along the borders of the 
grassy walks, thus varying somewhat their line 
and color. In order to keep these evergreens in 
perfection and in proper relation to one another 
for a considerable length of time, it would be 
necessary to pinch them or use the knife just 
before the young growth comes to ripeness in 
order to induce compactness. 

The beauty of such a garden as this for both 
winter and summer would be unrivaled if it were 
not for the danger of winter killing some of the 
evergreens. Moreover, there would be a little 
monotony in the purely evergreen effect, brilliant 
as it is during certain parts of the season. Also 
fewer herbaceous plants could be used in this 
than in the other scheme of treatment. 

The second design, which was the one eventu- 
ally chosen by the owners of the island and 
carried out in detail, contemplates the use of de- 

[79] 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

ciduous plants united with a large quantity of 
herbaceous ones. The dominant effect of this 
scheme is June and autumn color, especially 
that of autumn. It comprises Thunberg's bar- 
berry, Andromeda arborea, white-flowering dog- 
wood (Cornios florida), I'uonymus alatus, Japa- 
nese maple, Thunberg's spirea, all splendidly 
colored in autumn. There are lilacs here and 
other spireas and snowballs and the Japanese 
raspberry (Rhodotypus kerrioides). With these 
are mixed in great quantities herbaceous plants 
like Japanese iris, pinks, phlox, and anemone 
for autumn effect. In the center are two groups 
of beautiful varieties of sedum and saxifrage, 
spreading out like mats of coral brought up from 
the bottom of the sea. 

This whole arrangement is unrivaled in beauty 
in June and possibly in autumn, although that 
might afford a reasonable subject for discussion; 
yet, though there are splendid effects among the 
different colored evergreens, there is nothing 
more refined and delicate than this beautiful 
autumn deciduous foliage of tree and shrub. 

The third and last scheme for this garden, 
though like the first not acted upon, may prove 
suggestive for projects of a similar character. It 
is essentially a bedding arrangement. It involves 
the growing of tender plants, annual or biennial, 
in greenhouses or cold frames, such as Coleus, 
geraniums, alternantheras, cannas, castor-oil beans, 
acalyphas, and achyranthas. More than this, 
it involves planting the color designs of the bed- 

[80] 



AN ISLAND HOME 

ding with tulips in the autumn for the following 
spring effect. This spring effect can also be 
accomplished with pansies and daisies, the latter 
of which is perhaps the more lasting. The plan 
calls for its most splendid and most dwarf effect 
in the middle of the garden, where two beds are 
made of two varieties of the brilliant red achyran- 
thas. The other beds are arranged as elsewhere 
with varying contours with castor-oil plants and 
cannas and red salvias at the highest points. 
Many of the borders are planted with the low 
grass-like growth of the brilliant red and yellow 
alternantheras and at other places taller plants, 
such as geraniums and centaurias, push out to 
the very edge. 

These bedding-plants, properly treated, can pre- 
sent their full effect by the first of July if planted 
about the middle of May. But they are fine 
from the moment they are set out and they increase 
in splendor and glow of color until just before 
a heavy frost strikes them in October, when they 
seem to surpass themselves in richness of tone. 
In suggesting a plan involving this showy kind of 
gardening it was considered that the results 
would fully justify the expense and trouble, 
because there was a greenhouse on the place which 
in any case had to be heated and here the gardener 
could readily produce the bedding-plants required. 



[81] 



XIX 

EVERGREENS 

Evergreens have their place in landscape 
gardening and should be employed wherever 
they look well and do well. The difficulty is 
that they are a little sluggish in their habits, owing 
to the fact that they retain their foliage for so 
long a period. Some of them are hard to trans- 
plant, others are peculiarly sensitive to cold in 
early spring when warm days and hot winds suc- 
ceeded by cold blasts will chill the sap and brow r n 
the evergreen foliage in an hour. In other words, 
they are handicapped by their leaves. 

The function of evergreens in the landscape 
is to give a warm and agreeable appearance of 
foliage in winter and to diversify and strengthen 
the character of the landscape in summer. 

To accomplish this it is especially necessary 
to mass evergreens together; to isolate them from 
deciduous trees; to concentrate and cumulate 
their effect. The tones of their color should be 
studied and blended in groups. The different 
shades of green should be brought together and 
the bright yellows and shining blues used spar- 
ingly, if at all. Decorative effect in borders, 
window boxes, etc., admit of other and more 
artificial effects. 

[82] 



EVERGREENS 

Evergreens may be divided into two distinct 
classes of form, namely erect and spreading, and 
much good taste may be displayed in devising 
agreeable relations between these types. There 
are spots doubtless where evergreens of the erect 
form have their place standing alone in isolated 
beauty, but this erect form should be kept per- 
fectly natural. The knife and pruning-shears 
should never be allowed to mutilate them in 
order to produce fancied symmetry which really 
destroys their natural form. 

Certain freakish growth of branch or twig may 
require removal on rare occasions, and a great 
deal can be done by pinching and starting the tree 
in the right way by stakes when small. But 
when the tree assumes its specific form it should 
be nourished and cultivated but otherwise let 
alone. 

The list submitted below includes only ever- 
greens that can be safely depended upon in the 
climate of our Middle and Eastern States. If 
they are likely to be exposed to specially cold 
winds or other like vicissitudes of winter and 
spring, it is well to protect them during their 
earlier years with some loose covering like corn- 
stalks, sheaves of straw, or boards. Coverings of 
any kind which exclude the air are injurious. Need- 
less to say, evergreens above all plants should have 
fibrous roots produced by frequent transplanting, 
should be planted in mellow, well-drained soil and 
above all not too deeply. The soil should not be too 
rich and stimulating, as evergreens are apt in that 

[83] 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

case to produce immature growth late in the season 
and winter ill. 

LIST OF EVERGREENS FOR MIDDLE AND EASTERN 

STATES. 

Abies homolepis (P. brachyphylla). 

Cilicica, Cilician fir. 

concolor. 

Douglasii, Douglas fir. 

Mariesii. 

Sachalinensis. 

Veitchii. 

Biota Orientalis elegantissima. 

Cryptomeria Japonica lobbi compacta. 

Juniperus Canadensis Canadian juniper. 

Chinensis procumbens ) _. . 

__ . . Y Chinese juniper. 

Chinensis ) 

communis Suecica Swedish juniper. 

communis Cracovica. 

Japonica Japanese juniper. 

Japonica Pfitzeriana. 

Virginiana. ") 

Virginiana glauca. y Red cedar. 

Virginiana Schottii. j 
Picea alba White spruce. 

Alcockiana Alcock's spruce. 

Engelmanni Engelman's spruce. 

excelsa Norway spruce. 

Omorica. 

Orientalis Oriental spruce. 

polita Tiger-tail spruce. 

pungens Blue spruce. 

Pinus Austriaca Austrian pine. 

Cembra Swiss stone pine. 

densiflora. 

excelsa Bhotan pine. 

[84] 



Japanese cypress. 



EVERGREENS 

Pinus flexilis. 

Koraiensis. 

Massoniana. 

Mughus. 

parviflora. 

Strobus White pine. 

Retinospora obtusa gracilis 

obtusa filicoides 

obtusa pygmea (nana) 

plumosa 

pisifera 

pisifera filifera 

pisifera filifera aurea 

pisifera squarrosa 

Sciadopitys verticillata Japanese umbrella pine. 

Taxus cuspidata brevifolia ) T 

. , . J- Japanese yew. 

cuspidata capitata ) 

Canadensis Canadian yew. 

Canadensis repandens Spreading yew. 

Canadensis Washingtonii. 

Tsuga Canadensis American hemlock. 

diversifolia. 

Sieboldii Japanese hemlock. 



[85 



XX 

RHODODENDRONS 

It has been often said that England and Hol- 
land have the advantage over America in growing 
rhododendrons, while America triumphs in her 
deciduous trees and shrubs of which she has so 
great a variety. When it comes to evergreens, 
including both conifer and broad-leaved types, 
such as rhododendrons, the difference is less 
marked when one understands the subject. In 
America a large portion of the culture of rhodo- 
dendrons has been carried on by gardeners who 
have gained their experience chiefly in England 
or on the Continent. In this country, with a 
peculiar and perhaps natural prejudice, these 
gardeners have often adhered blindly to the 
kinds they were accustomed to use in England 
and simply blamed our beastly climate for their 
repeated failures. 

During the last ten or fifteen years, however, 
increasing wealth and a love for horticulture 
have greatly advanced the growing of rhododen- 
drons in this country. This has led to a more intelli- 
gent study of the shrub in its new environment. 
As an actual fact, however, America is the home 
of several of the best species. 

In North Carolina the exhibition of maximum 
and catawbiense rhododendrons excites the won- 

[86] 



RHODODENDRONS 

der of all travelers; and it has come to pass that 
larger and larger plantations of the native kinds 
are being used in parks and country-places. The 
foliage of both those varieties is entirely satisfactory 
and if it were not that the flowers are somewhat 
insignificant and wanting in richness of color 
there would be no necessity for going to England 
for rhododendrons. 

In the process of improving the various kinds 
in both England and on the Continent, hybrid- 
izing and selection of seedlings have been used 
with most remarkable results. Ponticum from 
Asia Minor; arboreum from the Himalayas, 
and still other kinds have been used to enrich 
and vary the color of the petal and increase the 
size of the truss of flowers. Many of these kinds 
have failed to be hardy in England, others do 
well there and yet do not thrive in America. 

The skill of the growers is great, but they can not 
make the kinds that are imbued with the southern 
blood always stand the rigors of the north even 
in England. Moreover, many more plants die 
there than is ordinarily supposed. On the other 
hand, there are nooks and corners all over Eng- 
land and Scotland, particularly in the South, 
where the tenderest rhododendrons thrive in an 
astonishing manner; but this affords no criterion 
for selecting kinds suitable to America. The 
more tender varieties are likely to have a strain 
of the arboreum blood in the catawbiense type, 
although the breeding of plants is apt to reveal 
strange freaks of inheritance. 

[87] 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

The only safe test for the hardiness of a plant 
is its behavior in any locality for a long period of 
years. Even then one will be surprised to see 
a kind, always deemed hardy, fail in an apparently 
well-protected place, while in another specially 
bleak spot a comparatively tender variety will 
astonish us by thriving. What is the deduction 
from this somewhat baffling experience? Simply 
that the behavior of the different kinds should 
be studied throughout ten, fifteen, or twenty 
years in several adjacent localities with different 
exposures. 

From the notes obtained in this way a general 
average of excellence is established. This kind 
of scientific observation has been going on for 
at least twenty years in at least one or two places 
in America, with the result that the whole body 
of rhododendron-growers has been thereby greatly 
enlightened. 

Some of the hardiest and best kinds have been 
produced in America from the selection of good 
seedlings. 

The so-called process of hybridizing as applied 
to rhododendrons in most cases is really not 
hybridizing at all, but a development from repeated 
selection from a multitude of seedlings of individ- 
ual plants showing excellent qualities or marked 
characteristics and repeating the process for 
several generations. 

A list of hardy rhododendrons suited to the 
climate of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia 
will be found in this chapter. The list may seem 

[88] 



RHODODENDRONS 

a short one, but it is conservative and based on the 
experience of nearly two generations in America. 

There are several other species of rhododendrons 
which are dwarf and very hardy, Rhododendron 
punctatum from the mountain slopes of North 
Carolina, Rhododendron ferrugineum, and R. hir- 
sutum from the European Alps. From the Cauca- 
sus come at least two hardy species, Smirnoi and 
Ungerni, with foliage like the Edelweiss or Alpen 
snowflower. Rhododendron Wilsonii is an attract- 
ive species. All of these are extremely hardy. 
From China come several hardy species, notably 
Rhododendron Kaempferii, which has been tested 
for a number of years in the Arnold arboretum. 
Still others may be expected from the same source. 

The character of soil has much to do with 
the success of rhododendrons. In the woods a 
sandy soil covered with plenty of leaves seems 
to favor them, doubtless because it enables the 
wood to ripen properly. In cultivated grounds 
where humus is usually deficient the addition of 
a strong soil containing plenty of clay and a good 
modicum of organic matter is best suited to their 
development. On the other hand, it should not 
have too much stimulating manure where the 
easily liberated ammonia tends to produce a 
succulent growth in the latter part of the summer 
and even in autumn, which exposes it to injury 
during the following winter and spring. This 
stimulation also leads to an overgrowth of leaf 
buds instead of flower buds. 

The surest way to obtain a healthy, vigorous, 

[89] 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

normal growth is to mulch heavily with leaves or 
other rotting organic matter soon after planting. 
The value of the mulching effect is well under- 
stood. 

Care of rhododendrons consists chiefly in remov- 
ing the excess of flower buds, taking away the 
fading flowers as soon as they show signs of decay, 
and watering during dry periods even as late as 
November if the drought has been considerable. 
The weakening effect of autumn drought has 
caused more rhododendrons to die in the following 
March than the extreme cold of the winter. A 
good way to break the severity of the winds 
throughout the winter and the spring is to place 
evergreen boughs thrust in the ground throughout 
the rhododendron groups, thus sheltering them. 

The maintenance of a large group of rhododen- 
drons calls for almost daily attention throughout 
summer and autumn. Not only are the foregoing 
precautions necessary, but protection must be pro- 
vided against the insects which will come as they 
come to all plants. Fungous growths may appear. 
Mice may invade the mulch in winter, all of which 
must be guarded against. After planting rhodo- 
dendrons and mulching them, there is no need 
of cultivation with fork or spade. Indeed, it 
may prove positively injurious. 

LIST OF HARDY RHODODENDRONS 

Abraham Lincoln, rosy crimson 

Album elegans, light blush, marked with straw-color, fading white 
Album grandiflorum, light blush, fading white 

[90] 



RHODODENDRONS 

Alexander Dancer, bright rose, with lighter center 

Amarantinora, large light rose 

Atrosanguineum, blood-red 

Boule de Neige, blush white 

Candidissimum, blush white, fading pure white 

Catawbiense bicolor, rose, white center 

Charles Bagley, cherry-red 

Charles Dickens, dark scarlet 

Charles S. Sargent, rich crimson 

Charles Thorold, purple, with beautiful bronze blotch 

Daisy Rand, deep crimson, beautifully spotted 

Delicatissimum, white blush, edged pink 

Dr. Torrey, rose 

Edward S. Rand, rich scarlet 

Everestianum, rosy lilac, spotted yellow 

Flushing, rosy scarlet, beautifully spotted 

F. D. Godman, crimson, with a beautiful dark blotch 

F. L. Ames, pale rose 

General Grant, rosy scarlet 

Glennyanum, blush white 

Hannibal, rose 

H. H. Hunnewell, rich dark crimson 

H. W. Sargent, crimson, enormous trusses 

Henrietta Sargent, pink, with yellow blotch 

Henry Probasco, deep carmine, fringed 

Ignatius Sargent, rosy scarlet, enormous trusses 

James Bateman, clear rosy scarlet 

James Macintosh, rosy scarlet, spotted 

J. R. Trumpy, rosy crimson 

Kettledrum, rich purplish crimson 

Kissena, lavender, beautifully crimped 

King of the Purples, beautiful purple 

Lady Armstrong, pale rose, beautifully spotted 

Lady Grey Egerton, light mauve or silvery blush 

Lee's dark purple 

Mabel Parsons, rose blush 

Macranthum, large bright rose 

[91] 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

Maximum roseum, pink, with a yellow blotch 

Maximum superbum, large rose 

Melton, rich purple, with very dark center 

Metternichi, common white rhododendron of northern Japan 

Mrs. Arthur Hunnewell, pink with primrose center 

Mrs. H. S. Hunnewell, white 

Mrs. Harry Ingersoll, deep rosy-lilac, greenish -yellow blotch 

Mrs. Milner, rich crimson 

Mrs. C. S. Sargent, bright pink with yellow blotch 

Old Port, rich plum color 

President Roosevelt, plum color 

Purpureum crispum, clear purple, fringed 

Purpureum elegans, fine purple 

Purpureum grandiflorum, large purple 

Parsons grandiflorum, rosy purple 

Rosabel, pale rose 

Roseum luteum, pink, with yellow blotch 

R. S. Field, scarlet 

Scipio, fine rose, deep rose 

Sefton, dark maroon 

Senator Chas. Sumner, rose and light purple 

S. B. Parsons, very dark crimson 

Smirnowi, beautiful rose 

Speciosum, showy pink 



[92] 



XXI 

MRS. RUSSELL SAGE'S MILE OF RHODO- 
DENDRONS IN CENTRAL PARK 

When Mrs. Russell Sage dedded to give of 
her bounty to Central Park, where she and her 
husband had spent so many happy hours, she was 
led to select as a suitable place for improvement 
the barren and somewhat bare bank along the 
East Drive commencing at 86th Street. 

It was suggested to her that the spot lent itself 
well to rhododendrons. Surrounding conditions 
resembled favored spots in the native woods where 
rhododendrons grew. The place was sheltered 
by a bank fifteen feet high and partially shaded 
by large maples, elms, beeches, and plane-trees 
standing at considerable distances apart. The 
appearance of rhododendrons, both as to foliage 
and flowers, seemed enhanced by this partial 
seclusion. 

The theory followed in making this plantation 
of rhododendrons was to mass the taller and 
hardier ones (the maximums) at the back and 
high up on the slope, and to keep the smaller ones, 
fine-flowering hybrids, and Rhododendron cataw- 
biense, in the front. The arrangement was con- 
tinually varied by boldly breaking this rule at 
certain points. For instance, on a higher point of 

[93] 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

land rising up from the general contour of the 
bank would be carried out almost to its point a 
mass of the large maximums. Creeping in a great 
bay or mass of foliage up the bank would go, on 
the other hand, a lot of smaller hybrids. And 
so, throughout the entire length of the drive, 
following the contours of the ground as they 
waved up and down, would alternate promon- 
tories of maximums and deep bays of hybrids. 

Under the trees as far as possible were planted 
maximums of small size, as they endure shade 
better than any other species of rhododendrons. 
The hybrids, moreover, require sunlight to develop 
the beautiful colors of their flowers and were 
therefore planted in the more open spaces. One 
readily sees, by considering the accompanying 
picture, that although a certain system is visible 
in the disposition of the plants, yet the bays and 
promontories are very marked and the billowing 
effect of the planting is clearly indicated. Al- 
though the bank does protect the plants to a 
considerable degree, yet it is bleak and exposed 
to sweeping blasts of the cold north wind in March 
and April, just after a premature bit of spring- 
like weather has opened the pores of the plants 
and started the sap moving. Because of this it 
was found necessary to select unusually hardy 
kinds of hybrid rhododendrons which had been 
tested in this particular climate and soil for many 
years, as it is well known that the hardiness of 
rhododendrons is very unreliable. A hundred 
miles difference in latitude, or a few hundred 

[94] 



MRS. SAGE'S MILE OF RHODODENDRONS 

feet in altitude, or the proximity of seashore or 
mountains, would mean the difference between 
success and failure. 

The fertility of the natural soil on the entire 
area of this tract was leached out by the rains 
washing down its steep slopes, leaving hardly 
anything but sand. The rhododendron likes mel- 
low, fertile soil and revels in decayed organic 
matter. However, an overabundance of nitroge- 
nous food, such as stable manure or certain chemical 
fertilizers furnish, is liable to produce an excessive 
growth of wood throughout the season. This 
invites partial or entire destruction of the plant 
during the following winter or spring. 

The rhododendron does not necessarily prefer 
heavy clay soil, but often grows well in a sandy 
one where shade and natural conditions abound. 
In the exposed and dry conditions of Central 
Park, however, a heavier soil than the very sandy 
one found there is required. It was thought that 
at least twenty-five per cent of clay should be 
used, whereas in the sandy park soil only five 
to ten per cent of clay existed. To this was added 
a modicum of natural decayed organic matter 
or humus, producing a soil containing about 
twenty per cent of organic matter as compared 
to five or six per cent in the natural soil where 
the plantation w T as made. 

After the Sage rhododendrons were planted 
somewhat deeply in this soil it was covered with 
a mulch of four or ^ve inches of leaves because, 
unlike most other hardwood shrubs, the rhodo- 

[95] 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 

dendron shows a continual tendency to make roots 
upward to the very surface and the rotting mulch 
protects these roots in winter and spring and retains 
the moisture. 

The moisture-retaining power of this made soil, 
moreover, is greatly increased by the large humus 
content, as this material will retain several times 
its own weight in water, while sand will not hold 
more than one-fourth of its weight. 

The care of these rhododendrons in the park is 
deemed most important, and it has been the prac- 
tice to use the sprinkling-hose freely in the evening 
during the growing-season when the sun is settirfg 
or in the early morning. This is done only during 
dry periods, as overwatering is harmful and unduly 
stimulates the growth. The watering is dis- 
continued in August when the actual growth of 
the plant is finished and the proper ripening of 
the wood becomes important. Sometimes, how- 
ever, an extreme drought in the autumn makes it 
advisable to water freely every few days, as many 
rhododendrons die during the following winter 
and spring from a drought in the fall. In the 
season of bloom all faded flowers are immediately 
removed to give the plant full play for leaf develop- 
ment. 

It is well worth while to any one visiting Central 
Park in the latter part of May or early June to 
see this mile of Mrs. Sage's rhododendrons, purple, 
crimson, pink, and white masses of solid color 
hardly equaled in the whole range of floral effect 
in the temperate zone. 

T 961 



MRS. SAGE'S MILE OF RHODODENDRONS 



LIST OF RHODODENDRONS 



Abraham Lincoln 
Album Elegans 
Album grandiflorum 
Alexander Dancer 
Atrosanguineum 
Boule de Neige 
Chas. Bagley 
Chas. Dickens 
Delicatissimum 
Edward S. Rand 
Everestianum 



General Grant 
H. H. Hunnewell 
H. W. Sargent 
Kettledrum 
Lady Armstrong 
Mrs. Milner 
Old Port 

President Roosevelt 
Parsons grandiflorum 
Purpureum elegans 
Purpureum grandiflorum 
R. S. Field 



[97] 



INDEX 

A 

PAGE 

Acalyphas 80 

Achyranthas 80, 81 

Acid 11 

Act of Congress 37 

Actinidia 75 

Ailanthus 74, 77 

Alba sanguinea 24 

Albemarle Park 33 

Alkalinity 10 

Alternantheras 80, 81 

Ampelopsis Veitchi 30 

Analysis 9, 10 

Andromed aarboreum 47, 60, 76, 80 

Anemones 51, 80 

Arbor-vitse 50 

Ash 48, 66 

Ash, bronze leaf 50 

Asphalt 27 

Asphaltic earth 67, 73 

Aucuba Japonica 24 

Azalea amcena 60 

Azalea, Japanese 56, 60 

Azaleas 47, 76 

B 

Baccharis halimifolia 23 

Barberry 55, 74, 80 

Baths 27 

[99 1 



INDEX 

PAGE 

Bayberry 24, 74, 77 

Bedding-plants 24, 81 

Beech 63 

Beech, European 30, 44 

Bermuda grass 58 

Birch 59 

Birch, weeping 50 

Birch, white 30, 48 

Birch, yellow 23, 44 

Bittersweet 44, 77 

Bowlders 29, 74, 75, 76 

Bullrushes * 76 

Burning bush 47 



C 

Cannas 24, 80, 81 

Carlisle 53 

Castor-oil beans 80, 81 

Catalpa 23 

Cedars, red 20, 59, 76, 78 

Cedrus deodara (Indian cypress) 58, 59 

Centaurias 81 

Central Park 15, 29 

Cherries, Japanese 63 

Chestnuts 53 

City College 19 

Clay 10, 52 

Clay loam 9, 10, 24, 67, 72, 76 

Coleus 80 

Colonial park 18 

Columbines 51 

Coney Island . 22 

Conifer 86 

Contour 9, 59 

Coreopsis 51 

[100] 



INDEX 

PAGE 

Cryptomerias 62 

Cypress, Lawson 59 



D 

Daffodils 51 

Daisies 81 

De Witt Clinton Park 28 

Dogwood 30, 35, 44, 45, 47, 50, 55, 60, 64, 66, 80 

Dogwood, white 24 

Drainage 9, 53 

E 

Elms 53, 5Q, 59, 63, 65, 68 

Elms, American 23 

Elms, English 23 

Euonymus alatus 47, 80 

Evergreens 50, 55, 57, 58, 59, 70, 71, 78, 82, 86 

F 

Farm garden 28 

Fertilizing 9, 68 

Fir, Douglas 70 

Fir, pinsapo 59 

Fir, silver 59 

Forsythia 24, 54, 55, 71 

Foxgloves 51 

G 

Gardens 49, 50, 52 

Garden, vegetable 77 

Geraniums 24, 80, 81 

Gingko tree (maiden-hair) 59 

[101] 



INDEX 



PAGE 



Grading 9, 19, 22, 29, 44, 53, 58, 71 

Grape vines 48 

Grape vines, wild 77 

Grass, Bermuda 58 

Grass, creeping bent 72 

Grass, Kentucky blue- 68, 72 

Grass, redtop 72 

Grass, Rhode Island bent 72 

Grass, rye 58 

Grass, salt marsh- 76 

Grass seed * 12 

Gridiron 31, 33 

Groundsel 23 

Gymnasium 27 

H 

Hawthorn 71 

Hemlocks 50, 55, 59 

Herbaceous plants 78, 79, 80 

Hibiscus 24 

Highbush cranberry 71 

Hollyhocks 51 

Honeysuckle 24, 48, 77 

Honeysuckle bush 55, 60, 66, 71 

Honeysuckle, Japanese 71 

Horse-chestnuts 63 

Humus 10, 52, 67, 68, 72 

Hyacinths 51 

Hydrangeas 24, 55, 71 

/ 

Indian cypress (Cedrus deodara) 58, 59 

Irises 51, 61, 80 

Ivy, Japanese 73 

[102] 



INDEX 
J 

PAGE 

Japanese gardens 61 

Japanese raspberries 71, 80 

Junipers 50, 59, 79 



K 

Kalmias 23 



L 

Landscape-gardening principle 21 

Larkspurs 51, 56 

Laurels 50, 58 

Lawn 9, 41, 52, 54,57,61,65,67,68,74, 77 

Ligustrum ibota 24 

Lilacs 80 

Lilies 51 

Lilies of the valley 51 

Lime 10, 11, 52 

Lindens 59 

Litmus 11 

Liquidambars 45, 47, 48, 64 

M 

Magnolia, Chinese 55 

Magnolia, Japanese 55 

Maiden-hair tree (Gingko) 59 

Maples 53, 56, 57, 63 

Maples, Japanese 56, 63, 80 

Maples, Norway 23, 30, 54, 70, 71 

Maples, silver 66 

Mold 52 

Morningside Park 18 

Mulch 96 

Myrica cerif era 23 

[103] 



INDEX 

N 

PAGE 

Nannyberry 47 

Narcissi 51 

Nature 20, 63, 64, 76 

Ninebark (Spiraea opulifolia) 71 



Oak * 44, 45, 61 

Ocean Parkway 22 

Organic matter 72 

Oxydendron arboreum 47 

P 

Pansies 81 

Paris 62 

Parks 25, 27, 49 

Paths 19, 20 

Peonies 51 

Pepperidges 64 

Pergola 75, 77, 78 

Philadelphus 24 

Phlox 51, 80 

Phosphoric acid 11 

Pine Lawn Cemetery 33 

Pines 50, 61 

Pines, Austrian 23 

Pines, umbrella 79 

Pines, white 55 y 57, 70 

Pinks 51, 80 

Plane-trees 23, 59 

Plantations 23 

Planting 54 

Plateau 54 

Play-ground 27 

[104] 



INDEX 

PAGE 

Pond 29 

Potash 11 

Prickly pears 76 

Privet 23 

Privet, California 24, 78 

Privet, Regels or Regelianum 54, 71, 78 

Promontory 29 

Pruning 41, 78, 79, 83 



R 

Randall's Island 2 

Retinospora 79 

Retinospora obtusa 59 

Rhododendrons 16, 17, 23, 50, 56, 58, 66, 67, 68, 76, 86 

Rhodotypus kerrioides 24 

Roads 43, 53, 54, 56 y 57 

Rock plants 76 

Rose garden 78 

Roses 66 

Roses, hybrid tea 24 

Roses, hybrid wichuriana 75 

Roses, rambler 24 

Running track 27 



S 

Sage, Mrs. Russell 16, 17 

Salvias 51,81 

Sand 10, 52, 69 

Saxifrage 48, 51, 76, 80 

Sedums 48, 51, 76, 80 

Seward Park 27 

Shelter building 25 

Shower baths 25 

[105] 



INDEX 

PAGE 

Shrubs 20, 24 

Shrubs, deciduous 23 

Silica 11 

Snowballs 55, 66, 71, 80 

Snowdrops 51 

Soil 53, 67, 69, 70, 72, 83 

Soil, fertile 52 

Sour-wood 47, 60 

Speedway 18 

Spirse opulifolia (Ninebark) 71 

Spirea, Thunberg's 80 

Spruce 50 

Spruce, Alcock's 55 

Spruce, blue 55, 59 

Spruce, concolor 59 

Spruce, Douglas 55, 59, 76 

Spruce, Oriental 55 

Stable manure 11 

Steps 20 

Storm King 43, 44 

St. Nicholas Park 18 

Sumacs 30, 47, 64 

Sweetgum 47 



T 

Tile 9, 52 

Top soil 22, 24 

Tulips 51, 81 



V 

Viburnum 24 

Virginia creeper 44, 75, 77 

Vistas 53, 57 

[106] 



INDEX 

W 

PAGE 

Walks 21, 54 

Wall 75 

Watering rhododendrons 96 

Water-lilies 50, 78 

Washington, D. C 37 

Willows, gray 20, 23 

Willows, pussy 23 

Willows, red-stemmed . . 55 

Willows, weeping 23 

Willows, white 55 

Winter killing 79 

Woodbine 44 



Y 

Yew, English 59, 79 

Yews 50, 51, 59 



[107] 



H 489 85 




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